{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_67180/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_67180","id":"gutenberg_67180","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67180","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fairy tales -- Korea"],"text":"KOREAN\n                              FAIRY TALES\n\n                                   BY\n                         WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS\n\n                 Author of \u201cKorea: Within and Without\u201d;\n              \u201cKorea: The Hermit Nation\u201d and of Japanese,\n              Dutch, Belgian, Swiss and Welsh Fairy Tales\n\n\n                          ILLUSTRATED IN COLOR\n\n\n                                NEW YORK\n                       THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY\n                               PUBLISHERS\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA NOTE TO THE FRIENDS OF KOREA\n\n\nEverywhere on earth the fairy world of each country is older and\nperhaps more enduring than the one we see and feel and tread upon. So I\ntell in this book the folk lore of the Korean people, and of the\nbehavior of the particular kind of fairies that inhabit the Land of\nMorning Splendor. Yet, if I live long enough, I shall write the\nwonderful history of the Korean nation and civilization, which once so\nenriched Asia, and made possible the modern Japan such as we know\ntoday, of which fact the literature and art of both countries bear\nample witness.\n\n\nW. E. G.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                    PAGE\n    The Unmannerly Tiger                               1\n    Tokgabi and His Pranks                             6\n    East Light and the Bridge of Fishes               11\n    Prince Sandalwood, the Father of Korea            17\n    The Rabbit\u2019s Eyes                                 24\n    Topknots and Crockery Hats                        30\n    Fancha and the Magpie                             38\n    The Sneezing Colossus                             49\n    A Bridegroom for Miss Mole                        53\n    Old White Whiskers and Mr. Bunny                  59\n    The King of the Flowers                           65\n    Tokgabi\u2019s Menagerie                               71\n    Cat-kin and the Queen Mother                      78\n    The Magic Peach                                   89\n    The Great Stone Fire Eater                       102\n    Pigling and Her Proud Sisters                    110\n    The Mirror that Made Trouble                     117\n    Old Timber Top                                   130\n    Sir One Long Body and Madame Thousand Feet       147\n    The Sky Bridge of Birds                          155\n    Longka, the Dancing Girl                         161\n    A Frog for a Husband                             167\n    Shoes for Hats                                   179\n    The Voice of the Bell                            187\n    The King of the Sparrows                         195\n    The Woodman and the Mountain Fairies             204\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKOREAN FAIRY TALES\n\nTHE UNMANNERLY TIGER\n\n\n\u201cMountain Uncle\u201d was the name given by the villagers to a splendid\nstriped tiger that lived among the highlands of Kang Wen, the long\nprovince which from its cliffs overlooks the Sea of Japan. Hunters\nrarely saw him, and among his fellow-tigers the Mountain Uncle boasted\nthat, though often fired at, he had never been wounded; while as for\ntraps\u2014he knew all about them and laughed at the devices used by man to\ncatch him and to strip him of his coveted skin. In summer he kept among\nthe high hills and lived on fat deer. In winter, when heavy snow,\nbiting winds, and terrible cold kept human beings within doors, old\nMountain Uncle would sally forth to the villages. There he would prowl\naround the stables, the cattle enclosures, or the pig pens, in hopes of\nclawing and dragging out a young donkey, a fat calf, or a suckling pig.\nToo often he succeeded, so that he was the terror of the country for\nleagues around.\n\nOne day in autumn, Mountain Uncle was rambling among the lower hills.\nThough far from any village, he kept a sharp lookout for traps and\nhunters, but none seemed to be near. He was very hungry and hoped for\ngame.\n\nBut on coming round a great rock, Mountain Uncle suddenly saw in his\npath some feet ahead, as he thought, a big tiger like himself.\n\nHe stopped, twitched his tail most ferociously as a challenge, showed\nfight by growling, and got ready to spring. What was his surprise to\nsee the other tiger doing exactly the same things. Mountain Uncle was\nsure there would be a terrible struggle, but this was just what he\nwanted, for he expected to win.\n\nBut after a tremendous leap in the air he landed in a pit and all of a\nheap, bruised and disappointed. There was no tiger to be seen, but\ninstead a heavy lid of logs had closed over his head with a crash and\nhe lay in darkness. Old Mountain Uncle was caught at last. Yes, the\nhunter had concealed the pit with sticks and leaves, and on the upright\ntimbers, covered with vines and brushwood, had hung a looking-glass.\nMountain Uncle had often beheld his own face and body in the water,\nwhen he stooped to drink, but this time not seeing any water he was\ndeceived into thinking a real tiger wanted to fight him.\n\nBy and by, a Buddhist priest came along, who believed in being kind to\nall living creatures. Hearing an animal moaning, he opened the trap and\nlifting the lid saw old Mountain Uncle at the bottom licking his\nbruised paw.\n\n\u201cOh, please, Mr. Man, let me get out. I\u2019m hurt badly,\u201d said the tiger.\n\nThereupon the priest lifted up one of the logs and slid it down, until\nit rested on the bottom of the pit. Then the tiger climbed up and out.\nOld Mountain Uncle expressed his thanks volubly, saying to the shaven\nhead:\n\n\u201cI am deeply grateful to you, sir, for helping me out of my trouble.\nNevertheless, as I am very hungry, I must eat you up.\u201d\n\nThe priest, very much surprised and indignant, protested against such\nvile ingratitude. To say the least, it was very bad manners and\nentirely against the law of the mountains, and he appealed to a big\ntree to decide between them.\n\nThe spirit in the tree spoke through the rustling leaves and declared\nthat the man should go free and that the tiger was both ungrateful and\nunmannerly.\n\nOld Mountain Uncle was not satisfied yet, especially as the priest was\nunusually fat and would make a very good dinner. However, he allowed\nthe man to appeal once more and this time to a big rock.\n\n\u201cThe man is certainly right venerable Mountain Uncle, and you are\nwholly wrong,\u201d said the spirit in the rock. \u201cYour master, the Mountain\nSpirit, who rides on the green bull and the piebald horse to punish his\nenemies, will certainly chastise you if you devour this priest. You\nwill be no fit messenger of the Mountain Lord if you are so ungrateful\nas to eat the man who saved you from starvation or death in the trap.\nIt is shockingly bad manners even to think of such a thing.\u201d\n\nThe tiger felt ashamed, but his eyes still glared with hunger; so, to\nbe sure of saving his own skin, the priest proposed to make the toad a\njudge. The tiger agreed.\n\nBut the toad, with his gold-rimmed eyes, looked very wise, and instead\nof answering quickly, as the tree and rock did, deliberated a long\ntime. The priest\u2019s heart sank while the tiger moved his jaws as if\nanticipating his feast. He felt sure that Old Speckled Back would\ndecide in his favor.\n\n\u201cI must go and see the trap before I can make up my mind,\u201d said the\ntoad, who looked as solemn as a magistrate. So all three leaped,\nhopped, or walked to the trap. The tiger, moving fast, was there first,\nwhich was just what the toad, who was a friend of the priest, wanted.\nBesides, Old Speckled Back was diligently looking for a crack in the\nrocks near by.\n\nSo while the toad and the tiger were studying the matter, the priest\nran off and saved himself within the monastery gates. When at last Old\nSpeckled Back decided against Mountain Uncle and in favor of the man,\nhe had no sooner finished his judgment than he hopped into the rock\ncrevice, and, crawling far inside defied the tiger, calling him an\nunmannerly brute and an ungrateful beast, and daring him to do his\nworst.\n\nOld Mountain Uncle was so mad with rage and hunger that his craftiness\nseemed turned into stupidity. He clawed at the rock to get at the toad,\nbut Speckled Back, safe within, only laughed. Unable to do any harm,\nthe tiger flew into a passion of rage. The hotter his temper grew, the\nmore he lost his wit. Poking his nose inside the crack he rubbed it so\nhard on the rough rock that he soon bled to death.\n\nWhen the hunter came along he marveled at what he saw, but he was glad\nto get rich by selling the tiger\u2019s fur, bones, and claws; for in Korea\nnothing sells so well as a tiger. As for the toad, he told to several\ngenerations of his descendants the story of how he outwitted the old\nMountain Uncle.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTOKGABI AND HIS PRANKS\n\n\nTokgabi is the most mischievous sprite in all Korean fairy-land. He\ndoes not like the sunshine or outdoors, and no one ever saw him on the\nstreets.\n\nHe lives in the sooty flues that run under the floors along the whole\nlength of the house, from the kitchen at one end of it to the chimney\nhole in the ground at the other end. He delights in the smoke and smut,\nand does not mind fire or flame, for he likes to be where it is warm.\nHe has no lungs, and his skin and eyes are both fire-proof. He is as\nblack as night and loves nothing that has white in it. He is always\nafraid of a bit of silver, even if it be only a hairpin.\n\nTokgabi likes most to play at night in the little loft over the\nfireplace. To run along the rafters and knock down the dust and cobwebs\nis his delight. His favorite game is to make the iron rice-pot lid\ndance up and down, so that it tumbles inside the rice kettle and cannot\neasily be got out again. Oh, how many times the cook burns, scalds, or\nsteams her fingers in attempting to fish out that pot lid when Tokgabi\nhas pushed it in! How she does bless the sooty imp!\n\nBut Tokgabi is not always mischievous, and most of his capers hurt\nnobody. He is such a merry fellow that he keeps continually busy,\nwhether people cry or laugh. He does not mean to give any one trouble,\nbut he must have fun every minute, especially at night.\n\nWhen the fire is out, how he does chase the mice up and down the flues\nunder the floor, and up in the garret over the rafters! When the\nmousies lie dead on their backs, with their toes turned upward, the\nstreet boys take them outdoors and throw them up in the air. Before the\nmice fall to the ground, the hawks swoop down and eat them up. Many a\nbird of prey gets his breakfast in this way.\n\nAlthough Tokgabi plays so many pranks, he is kind to the kitchen maids.\nWhen after a hard day\u2019s work one is so tired out that she falls asleep,\nhe helps her to do her hard tasks.\n\nTokgabi washes their dishes and cleans their tables for good servants;\nso when they wake up the girls find their work done for them. Many a\nfairy tale is told about this jolly sprite\u2019s doings\u2014how he gives good\nthings to the really nice people and makes the bad ones mad by\nspitefully using them. They do say that the king of all the Tokgabis\nhas a museum of curiosities and a storehouse full of gold and gems and\nfine clothes, and everything sweet to eat for good boys and girls and\nfor old people that are kind to the birds and dumb animals. For bad\nfolks he has all sorts of things that are ugly and troublesome. He\npunishes stingy people by making them poor and miserable.\n\nThe Tokgabi king has also a menagerie of animals. These he sends to do\nhis errands rewarding the good and punishing naughty folks. Every year\nthe little almanac with red and green covers tells in what quarter of\nthe skies the Tokgabi king lives for that year, so that the farmers and\ncountry people will keep out of his way and not provoke him. In his\nmenagerie the kind creatures that help human beings are the dragon,\nbear, tortoise, frog, dog and rabbit. These are all man\u2019s friends. The\ncruel and treacherous creatures in Tokgabi\u2019s menagerie are the tiger,\nwild boar, leopard, serpent, toad and cat. These are the messengers of\nthe Tokgabi king to do his bidding, when he punishes naughty folks.\n\nThe common, every-day Tokgabi plays fewer tricks on the men and boys\nand enjoys himself more in bothering the girls and women. This, I\nsuppose, is because they spend more time in the house than their\nfathers or brothers. In the Land of Rat-tat-tat, where the sound of\nbeating the washed clothes never ceases, Tokgabi loves to get hold of\nthe women\u2019s laundry sticks which are used for pounding and polishing\nthe starched clothes. He hides them so that they cannot be found. Then\nDaddy makes a fuss because his long white coat has to go without its\nusual gloss, but it is all Tokgabi\u2019s fault.\n\nTokgabi does not like starch because it is white. He loves to dance on\nDaddy\u2019s big black hat case that hangs on the wall. Sometimes he wiggles\nthe fetich, or household idol, that is suspended from the rafters. But,\nmost of all, he enjoys dancing a jig among the dishes in the closet\nover the fireplace, making them rattle and often tumble down with a\ncrash.\n\nTokgabi likes to bother men sometimes too. If Daddy should get his\ntopknot caught in a rat hole, or his head should slip off his wooden\npillow at night and he bump his nose, it is all Tokgabi\u2019s fault. When\nanything happens to a boy\u2019s long braid of hair, that hangs down his\nback and makes him look so much like a girl, Tokgabi is blamed for it.\nIt is even said that naughty men make compacts with Tokgabi to do bad\nthings, but the imp only helps the man for the fun of it. Tokgabi cares\nnothing about what mortal men call right or wrong. He is only after fun\nand is up to mischief all the time, so one must watch out for him.\n\nThe kitchen maids and the men think they know how to circumvent Tokgabi\nand spoil his tricks. Knowing that the imp does not like red, a young\nman when betrothed wears clothes of this bright color. Tokgabi is\nafraid of shining silver, too, so the men fasten their topknots\ntogether, and the girls keep their chignons in shape, with silver\nhairpins. The magistrates and government officers have little storks\nmade of solid silver in their hats, or else these birds are embroidered\nwith silver thread on their dresses. Every one who can afford them uses\nwhite metal dishes and dresses in snowy garments. Tokgabi likes nothing\nwhite and that is the reason why every Korean likes to put on clothes\nthat are as dazzling as hoar frost. Tons and mountains of starch are\nconsumed in blanching and stiffening coats and skirts, sleeves and\nstockings. On festival days the people look as if they were dipped in\nstarch and their garments encrusted in rock candy. In this manner they\nprotect themselves from the pranks of Tokgabi.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEAST LIGHT AND THE BRIDGE OF FISHES\n\n\nLong, long ago, in the region beyond the Everlasting White Mountains of\nNorthern Korea, there lived a king who was waited on by a handsome\nyoung woman servant. Every day she gladdened her eyes by looking\nsouthward, where the lofty mountain peak which holds the Dragon\u2019s Pool\nin its bosom lifts its white head to the sky. When tired out with daily\ntoil she thought of the river that flows from the Dragon\u2019s Pool down\nout of the mountain. She hoped that some time she would have a son that\nwould rule over the country which the river watered so richly.\n\nOne day while watching the mountain top she saw coming from the east a\ntiny bit of shining vapor. Floating like a white cloud in the blue sky\nit seemed no bigger than an egg. It came nearer and nearer until it\nseemed to go into the bosom of her dress. Very soon she became the\nmother of a boy. It was indeed a most beautiful child.\n\nBut the jealous king was angry. He did not like the little stranger. So\nhe took the baby and threw it down among the pigs in the pen, thinking\nthat this would be the last of the boy. But no! the sows breathed into\nthe baby\u2019s nostrils and their warm breath made it live.\n\nWhen the king\u2019s servants heard the little fellow crowing, they went out\nto see what made the noise, and there they beheld a happy baby not\nseeming to mind its odd cradle at all. They wanted to give him food at\nonce but the angry king ordered the child to be thrown away, and this\ntime into the stable. So the servants took the boy by the legs and laid\nhim among the horses, expecting that the animals would tread on him and\nhe would be thus put out of the way.\n\nBut no, the mares were gentle, and with their warm breath they not only\nkept the little fellow from getting cold, but they nourished him with\ntheir milk so that he grew fat and hearty.\n\nWhen the king heard of this wonderful behavior of pigs and horses, he\nbowed his head toward Heaven. It seemed the will of the Great One in\nthe Sky that the boy baby should live and grow up to be a man. So he\nlistened to its mother\u2019s prayers and allowed her to bring her child\ninto the palace. There he grew up and was trained like one of the\nking\u2019s sons. As a sturdy youth, he practiced shooting with bow and\narrows and became skilful in riding horses. He was always kind to\nanimals. In the king\u2019s dominions any man who was cruel to a horse was\npunished. Whoever struck a mare so that the animal died, was himself\nput to death. The young man was always merciful to his beasts.\n\nSo the king named the youthful archer and horseman East Light, or\nRadiance of the Morning and made him Master of the Royal Stables. East\nLight, as the people liked to say his name, became very popular. They\nalso called him Child of the Sun and Grandson of the Yellow River.\n\nOne day while out on the mountains hunting deer, bears, and tigers, the\nking called upon the young archer to show his prowess in shooting\narrows. East Light drew his bow and showed skill such as no one else\ncould equal. He sent shaft after shaft whistling into the target and\nbrought down both running deer and flying birds. Then all applauded the\nhandsome youth. But instead of the king\u2019s commending East Light, the\nking became very jealous of him, fearing that he might want to seize\nthe throne. Nothing that the young man could do seemed now to please\nhis royal master.\n\nFearing he might lose his life if he remained near the king, East Light\nwith three trusty followers fled southward until he came to a great,\ndeep river, wide and impassable. How to get across he knew not, for no\nboat was at hand and the time was too short to make a raft, for behind\nhim were his enemies swiftly pursuing.\n\nIn a great strait, he cried out:\n\n\u201cAlas, shall I, the Child of the Sun and the Grandson of the Yellow\nRiver, be stopped here powerless by this stream?\u201d\n\nThen as if his father, the Sun, had whispered to him what to do, he\ndrew his bow and shot many arrows here and there into the water, nearly\nemptying his quiver.\n\nFor a few moments nothing happened. To his companions it seemed a waste\nof good weapons. What would their leader have left to fight his\npursuers when they appeared, if his quiver were empty?\n\nBut in a moment more the waters appeared to be strangely agitated. Soon\nthey were flecked and foaming. From up and down the stream, and in\nfront of them, the fish were swimming toward East Light, poking their\nnoses out of the water as if they would say:\n\n\u201cGet on our backs and we\u2019ll save you.\u201d They crowded together in so\ndense a mass that on their spines a bridge was soon formed, on which\nmen could stand.\n\n\u201cQuick!\u201d shouted East Light to his companions, \u201clet us flee! Behold the\nking\u2019s horsemen coming down the hill after us.\u201d\n\nSo over the bridge of fish backs, scaly and full of spiny fins, the\nfour young men fled. As soon as they gained the opposite shore, the\nbridge of fishes dissolved. Yet scarcely had they swum away, when those\nwho were in pursuit had gained the water\u2019s edge, on the other side. In\nvain the king\u2019s soldiers shot their arrows to kill East Light and his\nthree companions. The shafts fell short and the river was too deep and\nwide to swim their horses over. So the four young men escaped safely.\n\nMarching on farther a few miles, East Light met three strange persons\nwho seemed to be awaiting his coming. They welcomed him warmly and\ninvited him to be their king and rule over their city. The first was\ndressed in seaweed, the second in hempen garments, and the third in\nembroidered robes. These men represented the three classes of society;\nfirst fishermen and hunters; second farmers and artisans; and lastly\nrulers of the tribes.\n\nSo in this land named Fuyu, rich in the five grains, wheat, rice, and\nmillet, bean and sugarcane, the new king was joyfully welcomed by his\nnew subjects. The men were tall, brave and courteous. Besides being\ngood archers, they rode horses skilfully. They ate out of bowls with\nchop-sticks and used round dishes at their feasts. They wore ornaments\nof large pearls and jewels of red jade cut and polished.\n\nThe Fuyu people gave the fairest virgin in their realm to be the bride\nof King East Light and she became a gracious queen, greatly beloved of\nher subjects and many children were born to them.\n\nEast Light ruled long and happily. Under his reign the people of Fuyu\nbecame civilized and highly prosperous. He taught the proper relations\nof ruler and ruled and the laws of marriage, besides better methods of\ncooking and house-building. He also showed them how to dress their\nhair. He introduced the wearing of the topknot. For thousands of years\ntopknots were the fashion in Fuyu and in Korea.\n\nHundreds of years after East Light died, and all the tribes and states\nin the peninsula south of the Everlasting White Mountains wanted to\nbecome one nation and one kingdom, they called their country after East\nLight, but in a more poetical form,\u2014Cho-sen, which means Morning\nRadiance, or the Land of the Morning Calm.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPRINCE SANDALWOOD, THE FATHER OF KOREA\n\n\nFour little folks lived in the home of Mr. Kim, two girls and two boys.\nTheir names were Peach Blossom and Pearl, Eight-fold Strength and\nDragon. Dragon was the oldest, a boy. Grandma Kim was very fond of\ntelling them stories about the heroes and fairies of their beautiful\ncountry.\n\nOne evening when Papa Kim came home from his office in the Government\nbuildings, he carried two little books in his hand, which he handed\nover to Grandma. One was a little almanac looking in its bright cover\nof red, green and blue as gay as the piles of cakes and confectionery\nmade when people get married; for every one knows how rich in colors\nare pastry and sweets for the bride\u2019s friends at a Korean wedding\nparty.\n\nThe second little book contained the direction sent out by the Royal\nMinister of Ceremonies for the celebration of the festival in honor of\nthe Ancestor-Prince, Old Sandalwood, the Father of Korea. Twice a year\nin Ping Yang City they made offerings of meat and other food in his\nhonor, but always uncooked.\n\n\u201cWho was old Sandalwood?\u201d asked Peach Blossom, the older of the little\ngirls.\n\n\u201cWhat did he do?\u201d asked Yongi (Dragon), the older boy.\n\n\u201cLet me tell you,\u201d said Grandma, as they cuddled together round her on\nthe oiled-paper carpet over the main flue at the end of the room where\nit was warmest; for it was early in December and the wind was roaring\noutside.\n\n\u201cNow I shall tell you, also, why the bear is good and the tiger bad,\u201d\nsaid Grandma. \u201cWell, to begin\u2014\u2014\n\n\u201cLong, long ago, before there were any refined people in the Land of\nDawn, and no men but rude savages, a bear and a tiger met together. It\nwas on the southern slope of Old Whitehead Mountain in the forest.\nThese wild animals were not satisfied with the kind of human beings\nalready on the earth, and they wanted better ones. They thought that if\nthey could become human they would be able to improve upon the quality.\nSo these patriotic beasts, the bear and the tiger, agreed to go before\nHananim, the Great One of Heaven and Earth, and ask him to change at\nonce their form and nature; or, at least, tell them how it could be\ndone.\n\n\u201cBut where to find Him\u2014that was the question. So they put their heads\ndown in token of politeness, stretched out their paws and waited a long\nwhile, hoping to get light on the subject.\n\n\u201cThen a Voice spoke out saying, \u2018Eat a bunch of garlic and stay in a\ncave for twenty-one days. If you do, you will become human.\u2019\n\n\u201cSo into the dark cave they crawled, chewed their garlic and went to\nsleep.\n\n\u201cIt was cold and gloomy in the cave and with nothing to hunt or eat,\nthe tiger got tired. Day after day he moped, snarled, growled and\nbehaved rudely to his companion. But the bear bore the tiger\u2019s insults.\n\n\u201cFinally on the eleventh day, the tiger, seeing no signs of losing his\nstripes or of shedding his hair, claws or tail, and with no prospect of\nfingers or toes in view, concluded to give up trying to become a man.\nHe bounded out of the cave and at once went hunting in the woods, going\nback to his old life.\n\n\u201cBut the bear, patiently sucking her paw, waited till the twenty-one\ndays had passed. Then her hairy hide and claws dropped off, like an\novercoat. Her nose and ears suddenly shortened and she stood upright\u2014a\nperfect woman.\n\n\u201cWalking out of the cave the new creature sat beside a brook, and in\nthe pure water beheld how lovely she was. There she waited to see what\nwould take place next.\n\n\u201cAbout this time while these things were going on down in the world\nmatters of interest were happening in the skies. Whanung, the Son of\nthe Great One in the Heavens, asked his father to give him an earthly\nkingdom to rule over. Pleased with his request, the Lord of Heaven\ndecided to present his son with the Land of the Dragon\u2019s Back, which\nmen called Korea.\n\n\u201cNow as everybody knows, this country of ours, the Everlasting Great\nLand of the Dayspring, rose up on the first morning of creation out of\nthe sea, in the form of a dragon. His spine, loins and tail form the\ngreat range of mountains that makes the backbone of our beautiful\ncountry, while his head rises skyward in the eternal White Mountain in\nthe North. On its summit amid the snow and ice lies the blue lake of\npure water, from which flow out our boundary rivers.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is the name of this lake?\u201d asked Yongi the boy.\n\n\u201cThe Dragon\u2019s Pool,\u201d said Grandma Kim, \u201cand during one whole night,\never so long ago, the dragon breathed hard and long until its breath\nfilled the heavens with clouds. This was the way that the Great One in\nthe Skies prepared the way for his son\u2019s coming to earth.\n\n\u201cPeople thought there was an earthquake, but when they woke up in the\nmorning and looked up to the grand mountain, so gloriously white, they\nsaw the cloud rising far up in the sky. As the bright sun shone upon\nit, the cloud turned into pink, red, yellow and the whole eastern sky\nlooked so lovely that our country then received its name\u2014the Land of\nMorning Radiance.\n\n\u201cDown out of his cloud of many colors, and borne on the wind, Whanung,\nthe Heavenly Prince, descended first to the mountain top, and then to\nthe lower earth. When he entered the great forest he found a beautiful\nwoman sitting by the brookside. It was the bear that had been\ntransformed into lovely human shape and nature.\n\n\u201cThe Heavenly Prince was delighted. He chose her as his bride and, by\nand by, a little baby boy was born.\n\n\u201cThe mother made for her son a cradle of soft moss and reared her child\nin the forest.\n\n\u201cNow the people who dwelt at the foot of the mountain were in those\ndays very rude and simple. They wore no hats, had no white clothes,\nlived in huts, and did not know how to warm their houses with flues\nrunning under the floors, nor had they any books or writings. Their\nsacred place was under a sandalwood tree, on a small mountain named\nTabak, in Ping Yang province.\n\n\u201cThey had seen the cloud rising from the Dragon\u2019s Pool so rich in\ncolors, and as they looked they saw it move southward and nearer to\nthem, until it stood over the sacred sandalwood tree; when out stepped\na white-robed being, and descending through the air alighted in the\nforest and on the tree.\n\n\u201cOh, how beautiful this spirit looked against the blue sky! Yet the\ntree was far away and long was the journey to it.\n\n\u201c\u2018Let us all go to the sacred tree,\u2019 said the leader of the people. So\ntogether they hied over hill and valley until they reached the holy\nground and ranged themselves in circles about it.\n\n\u201cA lovely sight greeted their eyes. There sat under the tree a youth of\ngrand appearance, arrayed in princely dress. Though young looking and\nrosy in face, his countenance was august and majestic. Despite his\nyouth, he was wise and venerable.\n\n\u201c\u2018I have come from my ancestors in Heaven to rule over you, my\nchildren,\u2019 he said, looking at them most kindly.\n\n\u201cAt once the people fell on their knees and all bent reverently,\nshouting:\n\n\u201c\u2018Thou art our king, we acknowledge thee, and will loyally obey only\nthee.\u2019\n\n\u201cSeeing that they wanted to know what he could tell them, he began to\ninstruct them, even before he gave them laws and rules and taught them\nhow to improve their houses. He told them stories. The first one\nexplained to them why it was that the bear is good and the tiger bad.\n\n\u201cThe people wondered at his wisdom, and henceforth the tiger was hated,\nwhile people began to like the bear more and more.\n\n\u201c\u2018What name shall we give our King, so that we may properly address\nhim?\u2019 asked the people of their elders. \u2018It is right that we should\ncall him after the place in which we saw him, under our holy tree. Let\nhis title, therefore, be the August and Venerable Sandalwood.\u2019 So they\nsaluted him thus and he accepted the honor.\n\n\u201cSeeing that the people were rough and unkempt, Prince Sandalwood\nshowed them how to tie up and dress their hair. He ordained that men\nshould wear their long locks in the form of a topknot. Boys must braid\ntheir hair and let it hang down over their backs. No boy could be\ncalled a man, until he married a wife. Then he could twist his hair\ninto a knot, put on a hat, have a head-dress like an adult and wear a\nlong white coat.\n\n\u201cAs for the women, they must plait their tresses and wear them plainly\nat their neck, except at marriage, or on great occasions of ceremony.\nThen they might pile up their hair like a pagoda and use long hairpins,\njewels, silk and flowers.\n\n\u201cThus our Korean civilization was begun, and to this day the law of the\nhat and hair distinguishes us above all people,\u201d said Grandma. \u201cWe\nstill honor the August and Venerable Prince Sandalwood. Now,\ngood-night, my darlings.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RABBIT\u2019S EYES\n\n\nThere was trouble down in the fish world under the waves. Indeed, every\ncreature with fins and a tail was in distress, for the king of the\nfishes was suffering with a dreadful pain in his mouth. It had come\nabout in this way.\n\nOne day while swimming around in the waters outside his palace, the\nking of the fishes saw something hanging in the water that looked as if\nit were good to eat. So at once His Majesty gulped it down, when, oh\nhorrors! he found he had barely escaped swallowing a fish hook, which\nstuck fast in his gills. It had been baited by some fishermen up in a\nboat on the sea top. When the king of the fishes found the dreadful\nthing in his mouth, he jerked himself away. The line broke but the hook\nremained, giving the king a fever and much pain.\n\nHow to get the iron out and heal His Majesty was now the question. All\nthe wise creatures in the ocean, from the turtle to the gudgeon and\nfrom the tittleback to the whale, were summoned to the palace to see\nwhat could be done. Many a sage noddle was bent, and eye blinked and\nfin wagged, as the marine doctors talked the matter over in the\ncouncil. The turtle was considered the most learned and expert of them\nall. Many were his feelings of the king\u2019s pulse and his looking down\ninto his throat, before Dr. Turtle would pronounce what was the real\ntrouble or write a prescription for his patient. Finally, after\nconsultation with the other doctors that had fins and tails, or were in\nscales and shell, it was decided that nothing less than a poultice made\nof rabbits\u2019 eyes would loosen the hook and end His Majesty\u2019s troubles.\n\nSo Dr. Turtle was ordered to go to the seashore and invite a rabbit to\ncome down into the world under the sea, that they might make a poultice\nof his eyes and apply the warm mess to the king\u2019s throat.\n\nArriving on the sea beach, at the foot of a high hill, Dr. Turtle,\nlooking far up, found Mr. Rabbit out of his burrow and taking a\npromenade along the edge of the forest. Forthwith Dr. Turtle waddled\nacross the beach and part way up the hill, climbing hard, until he\nbegan to puff and blow. He had enough breath left, however, to salute\nBrother Bunny with a good-morning. Very politely the rabbit returned\nthe greeting.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a hot day,\u201d said Dr. Turtle, as he pulled out his handkerchief,\nwiped his horny forehead, and cleaned the sand out of his claws.\n\n\u201cYes, but the scenery is so fine, Dr. Turtle, that you must be glad\nyou\u2019re out of the water to see such lovely mountains. Don\u2019t you think\nKorea is a fine country? There is no land in the world so beautiful as\nours. The mountains, the rivers, the seashore, the forests, the\nflowers\u2014\u2014\u201d\n\nIf Dr. Turtle had let the rabbit run on, praising his own country, he\nwould have forgotten his errand; but, thinking of His Majesty, the\nsuffering fish king, with the cruel hook in his mouth, Dr. Turtle\ninterrupted Bunny, saying:\n\n\u201cOh, yes, Brother Bunny, this view of the landscape and country is all\nvery beautiful, but it can\u2019t compare to the gems and jewels, trees and\nflowers, sweet odors and everything lovely down in the world under the\nsea.\u201d\n\nAt this, the rabbit pricked up his ears. It was all new to him. He had\nnever heard that there was anything under the water but common fishes\nand seaweed and when these were decayed and washed up along the\nseashore\u2014well, he had his ideas about them. They did not smell sweet at\nall. Now he heard a different story. His curiosity was roused. \u201cWhat\nyou tell me, my friend, is interesting. Go on.\u201d\n\nThereupon Dr. Turtle proceeded to tell of most wonderful mountains and\nvalleys down on the floor of the deep sea, with every kind of rare\nwater plants, red, orange-color, green, blue, white, with trees of gold\nand silver, besides flowers of every color and delightful perfume.\n\n\u201cYou surprise me,\u201d said Brother Bunny, getting more interested.\n\n\u201cYes, and all sorts of good things to eat and drink, with music and\ndancing, handsome serving maids and everything nice. Come along and be\nour guest. Our king has sent me to invite you.\u201d\n\n\u201cMay I go?\u201d asked Brother Bunny, delighted.\n\n\u201cYes, at once. Get on my back and I\u2019ll carry you.\u201d\n\nSo the rabbit ran and the turtle waddled to the water\u2019s edge.\n\n\u201cNow hold fast to my front shell,\u201d said Dr. Turtle; \u201cwe\u2019re going under\nthe water.\u201d\n\nDown, down below the blue waves they sank until they arrived at the\nking\u2019s palace. There the rabbit found everything was true, as told by\nthe turtle. The colors, the rich gems were as he had said.\n\nDr. Turtle introduced Brother Bunny to some of the princes and\nprincesses of the kingdom and these showed their guest the sights and\ntreasures of the palace, while Dr. Turtle attended the council of\ndoctors to announce the success of his errand.\n\nBut while Mr. Rabbit was enjoying himself, thinking this was the most\nwonderful place in the world, he overheard them talking. Then he found\nout why they had brought him there and shown him such honors. Horrified\nat the idea of losing his eyes, he determined to save his sight and\nplay the tortoise a smart trick. However, of this he told no one.\n\nSo when he was politely informed by the royal executioners that he must\ngive up his eyes to make the king well, Brother Bunny broke out with\nequally polite regrets:\n\n\u201cReally I am so sorry that His Majesty is ill, and you must excuse me\nthat I cannot help him immediately, for the eyes I have in my head now\nare not real eyes, but only crystal. I was afraid that sea water would\nhurt my sight, so I took out my ordinary eyes, buried them in the sand\nand put on these crystal ones, which I usually wear in very dusty or\nwet weather.\u201d\n\nAt this the faces of the royal officers fell. How could they break the\nnews to His Majesty and disappoint him?\n\nBrother Bunny seemed to be really sorry for them and spoke up.\n\n\u201cOh! don\u2019t feel bad about it. If you will allow me to return to the\nbeach, I\u2019ll dig them up and return in time for the poultice-making,\u201d\nsaid the rabbit.\n\nSo, getting on Dr. Turtle\u2019s back, Brother Bunny was soon out of the\nwater and on land.\n\nIn a jiffy he jumped off, scampered away, and reached the woods,\nshowing only his cotton tail. Soon he was out of sight.\n\nDr. Turtle shed tears and returned to tell how a rabbit had outwitted\nhim.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS\n\n\nLong, long ago in China, even centuries before the great Confucius was\nborn, there lived a wise and learned man named Kija. He was the chief\ncounselor at court, and all honored him for his justice and goodness.\nHe was always kind to boys and girls.\n\nBut when a great war broke out and a new line of rulers came into\npower, Kija declined to serve the king of the country and resolved to\nemigrate to the far East. There he would teach the savage people\nmanners and refinement.\n\nThe new king was sorry to have Kija go, for he respected his character\nand wisdom. However he allowed five thousand of the best people, most\nof them Kija\u2019s followers, to accompany their master among the Eastern\nsavages. Many of the common folks wept when they saw the emigrants\nleave China the flowery country to go into the Eastern wilderness and\njourney to an unknown region, full of dark swamps and thick forests.\nKija was going where there were no roads, farms, or houses, and the\nwoods were full of wild beasts, especially big bears and terrible\ntigers that liked to feed on human beings. It was even said that there\nwere flying serpents that had wings and leopards that stood up holding\nlightning in their paws.\n\nOver the great plains of Manchuria, Kija and his army of people, little\nfolks and big ones, marched ever toward the rising sun, until they\ncrossed the Duck Green River, which we call the Yalu. After a few days\nmore, they came to the Great Eastern River (Ta Tong). There the land\nwas very beautiful and Kija resolved to settle and build a city. From\nthe tinted clouds at sunrise, rosy, golden, flushed with every shade of\nred, and lovely with changing colors the new country had been named\nCho-sen, or Land of Morning Radiance. As the sun rose and raced toward\nthe west, where his homeland lay, Kija welcomed the good omen as a\ndouble blessing. He saw in the calm of his first day in his adopted\ncountry a threefold pledge of continued good-will between the new\nkingdom and the old empire, Heaven\u2019s favoring sign of his loyalty to\nthe Chinese Emperor, and the surety of good-will from the spirit of the\nEver White Mountain.\n\nHaving laid out for his colony a city which was to be the capital of\nhis kingdom, Kija began to build a wall. He named the city Ping Yang,\nwhich means Northern Castle.\n\n\u201cBut now that we have safely arrived as after a voyage, the city shall\nbe shaped like a boat,\u201d said Kija. \u201cWithin its walls no wells shall be\ndug, lest this, like boring holes, should make the boat sink. Then\nalso, on the outside, to the west, shall stand the rock pillar to which\nthe boat city shall be forever moored.\u201d\n\nKija was ably assisted by his wise men, who were skilled in literature,\npoetry, music, medicine and philosophy. Together they published eight\ngreat laws for the kingdom:\n\n\n    1. Agriculture for the men.\n    2. Weaving for the women.\n    3. Punishment of thieves.\n    4. Murderers to be beheaded.\n    5. All land to be divided into nine squares, the central one\n       to be tilled in common for the benefit of the State.\n    6. Simple life for all.\n    7. The law of marriage.\n    8. Wicked people to be made slaves.\n\n\nKija laid out roads, established measures and distances and ordained\nthe rules of politeness. He taught the savage people how to build good\nhouses, each with roofs of thatch or tile and a kang, or warming place,\nby means of flues running under the floors. There was a fire at one end\nand a chimney at the other, so that the smoke came out of the ground\nhalf-way up the house wall. Twice a day, at morning and sunset, the\npeople fed with fuel the furnaces or cooking place in the kitchen. Then\nthe flames, heat and smoke passed through the flues, warming the rooms.\nThus the houses were made cozy and comfortable. Every day one can see\nthe morning and the evening cloud of the kang smoke hanging over the\ncity. It is in these flues and around the cooking pots that Tokgabi,\nthe merry scamp, plays his most mischievous tricks. He is a sooty\nfellow and loves nothing better than to amuse or plague mortal men.\n\nThe people of the land were very rough and savage in these early times\nand being constantly given to hard fighting, murder was common. So Kija\nfound that he must devise some way to make them peaceable. At first he\ntried gentle methods. He saw that the rude fellows wore their hair\nlong, letting their locks stream out over their backs and that they\nwere often unkempt and slovenly to the last degree. Besides they hated\ncombs and did not like to get washed.\n\nSo Kija republished the law of Dan Kun, the spirit of the mountain, who\nhad two topknots. He ordered that every married man should bind up his\nhair into a knot, or chignon, on top of his head. Thus the Korean\ntopknot was established by law. As for the younger fellows they must\nplait their hair and wear it in a braid down their backs. Until a man\ngot a wife, he was only a boy, and must hold his tongue in presence of\nhis elders. If caught wearing a topknot before he had a wife, he was\npunished severely.\n\nNevertheless the rough people mistook the good purposes of Kija. They\nused the topknot as a handle to catch hold of when fighting in the\nstreets. The big, burly fellows pulled the smaller men around most\ncruelly. Furthermore, they were accustomed to crack each other\u2019s skulls\nwith clubs, so that many dead men were found in the streets. To stop\nthese quarrels and murders, Kija invented a hat that would keep\nbrawlers at least a yard apart.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll settle their quarrels for them, once and forever,\u201d said Kija.\n\u201cI\u2019ll make their fun cost each man a pretty rope of cash. Every time\ntwo bullies fight, they shall have a lot of crockery to pay for.\u201d\n\nSo Kija caused big heavy hats to be moulded of clay. These measured\nfour feet across and were two feet high, weighing many pounds. These he\nhad baked in ovens until they were hard as stone. They looked like big\nporridge bowls turned upside down.\n\nEvery fellow who had a bad temper, or was known to quarrel was\ncompelled to wear a hat of this heavy earthenware. Whenever a crowd of\nmen-folks got together they looked like a field of moving mushrooms.\n\nWhen men fought they only cracked their crockery. In this way Kija\neasily found out who broke the law so that he could punish them. Then\nthey had to go to the potter\u2019s and buy new hats. This made it quite an\nexpensive affair, for a good half year\u2019s wages was required to pay for\na hat.\n\nKija\u2019s wisdom was justified. The earthenware hats proved to be a good\nprotection to the sacred topknots and the men liked them. Quarrelsome\nfellows stopped pulling hair and smashing heads. It got to be the\ncustom, instead of punching a man\u2019s face or cracking his skull, to let\noff one\u2019s bad temper in scolding and calling names, glaring\nfrightfully, or rolling one\u2019s eyes,\u2014all of which of course made no\nblood flow. The bumpkin who could make the most frightful faces, grind\nhis teeth most savagely, and look more like a devil than the other\nfellow, was reckoned the bravest and the victor.\n\nBefore many months, a street quarrel got to be a perfectly silent\nbattle of ugly faces and terrible gestures. What at first promised to\nbe a bloody murder usually became a noiseless duel, or a quarrel\nbetween deaf and dumb folks. This furnished violent exercise for eyes\nand teeth only, but it passed off like steam out of a kettle. In time a\ngentleness like a great calm settled over the land.\n\nThe crockery hats became all the fashion. They were very popular. Even\nthe women wanted to wear them, because they were so useful. When turned\nover, they served as wash-bowls and many a good housewife borrowed her\nhusband\u2019s second-best hat to do the family washing in. They were useful\nalso for feed troughs and drinking basins for the horses and cattle and\nfor donkeys to eat their beans.\n\nThe women, though not permitted to wear crockery bonnets, were pleased\nwith the way Kija treated them. He took the clubs of the rough men,\nwhich they no longer needed, and handed them over to the wives and\ndaughters to use in pounding the clothes on wash days and for ironing.\nIn this way, the Korean women learned the wonderful art of putting a\nfine gloss on the starched clothes of the male members of the family,\nespecially on the long white coat of the house father. Thus by changing\nsticks that had been used as skull-crackers into starch polishers, Kija\nchanged also ruffians into gentlemen. Ever since, Koreans have been\nfamous for their politeness.\n\nHappily also, the men grew more refined in their manners and were kind\nto their wives and daughters, because they saw such shining clothes.\nWhen hot weather came and the gentlemen complained of the heat, and\nfearing that perspiration might spoil their fine clothes, Kija allowed\nthem to make inside suits of bamboo sticks, as fine as thread or wire.\nThus the Korean gentleman wore his outer clothes on a frame hung from\nhis shoulders like a hooped skirt. It seemed like taking off one\u2019s\nflesh and sitting in his bones thus to wear bamboo underclothes.\n\nBy and by, as manners improved, finding garments thus made from the\ncane-brake so comfortable, the men gave up their heavy crockery hats.\nIn place of these they wore \u201cbird cages\u201d made of horsehair over their\ntopknots, and out-of-doors put on \u201croofs\u201d of straw, reed, basket-ware,\nor shining black lacquered paper, according to their rank in society.\nThus it came to pass that Korea is the land of hats.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFANCHA AND THE MAGPIE\n\n\nA thousand years ago or more, there was a tribe in the cold and desert\nland of the Tartars, north of Korea, which grew to be famous in that\npart of the world. The men let their hair grow long and then plaited it\ninto a long braid that hung down their backs, but they shaved the front\nof their heads. These people were called Manchus.\n\nAlmost from babyhood they were trained to ride on horses, and in time\nthey became such bold horsemen and warriors, that they swooped down in\nthousands like clouds from their mountain land into warmer and richer\nregions. They had terrible bows and arrows, spears and swords, and they\nwon many victories, so that other tribes joined them. They captured\ngreat China and invaded Korea.\n\nAs long as they had been wandering tribes in the desert, they were poor\nand lived on plain food that the grassy plains and forests could\nfurnish, such as nuts, herbs, the milk of mares, and mutton. Their\nclothes were made of the wool from their own sheep. They were not\nproud, except of their strength, and they never asked who their\ngrandfathers were.\n\nBut it was very different when they came to be rulers of a vast empire,\nrich and great like China, which had books and writing and a history of\nthousands of years. The elegant Chinese gentlemen and nobles used to\ncall their conquerors the \u201chorsey Tartars.\u201d So they learned to wash and\nperfume themselves, and to care for jade, and tea, and porcelain, and\nsilk, and other things Chinese.\n\nNow it came to pass that when these people out of the desert sat on the\nthrones, and wore crowns on their heads, and dressed in satin, with\njeweled robes and velvet shoes, they wanted to know who had been their\nancestors long ago, and whence they came.\n\nIt would not do to believe that the fathers and mothers of so mighty a\nrace were once common folks who in the distant deserts lived on acorns\nand pine nuts, with horse meat often, and mutton occasionally, and\nmare\u2019s milk for dessert, or that they dressed in sheep skin and tended\nhorses like stable boys.\n\nOh no! If the common folks, whom they now governed and made obey them,\nknew that the nobles who now lived in Peking and bullied the Koreans\nwere once only stable and butcher boys, and had no houses but lived\nonly in tents, there would surely be trouble. These Koreans and Chinese\nmight disobey and rebel. They might even cut off their pigtails, which\nthe Tartars had forced them to wear, and clip their locks, like men in\nEurope and America. These white-faced and bearded foreigners they\ncalled \u201cSouthern Barbarians,\u201d because their ships came up from the\nsouth by way of India.\n\n\u201cWhat shall we do to make the Chinese and Koreans think we are\nsomebody?\u201d asked the Chinese Emperor of his wise men.\n\nIn the council it was the custom to ask first the younger men to tell\nwhat they thought about it, and for the oldest and wisest to speak\nlast. They talked over the matter a long time. Finally one graybeard\ntook off his goggles and made answer. He had on his nose a pair of\nhorn-rimmed green glasses, bigger than those which anyone else wore.\nThese it was supposed enabled him to look farther into the past and the\nfuture than his fellows. For the bigger the goggles, the more learned a\nman was supposed to be. He looked as wise as a stuffed owl, and was\nvery fat. He spoke last, after all the younger counselors had been\ninvited to give their opinions. Behind his back they called him Green\nLamps, because of his goggles and their color.\n\nNow in Korea and China it is not polite to keep your spectacles on your\nnose, when you look into the face of any person to whom you are\ntalking. So pulling off his goggles old Green Lamps got down on his\nknees. Then he performed the kow-tow. That was done by knocking the\nmatting of the floor with his forehead nine times. Green Lamps nearly\nbroke his stiff bones in doing it, and then he addressed the Emperor,\nwhose title was the Son of Heaven, as follows:\n\n\u201cSire, the common people will not respect us unless we can show that\nour far-off ancestors were not born like plain folks, but came down\nfrom Heaven. There is an old woman, nearly two cycles or one hundred\nand seventeen years old, who tells the children about our distant\nforebears, who dropped out of the sky. Shall I call her in?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is her name?\u201d inquired His Imperial Majesty.\n\n\u201cMrs. Crinkles, they call her, O Son of Heaven,\u201d answered Green Lamps.\n\n\u201cSummon her before me instantly,\u201d said the Emperor, and he waved his\nlotus-bud sceptre.\n\nNow Green Lamps was a foxy old fellow. He wanted to get even higher in\nthe Emperor\u2019s favor and had expected this. So, having the old lady\nready in another room of the palace, he went out and brought her in.\nShe was all ready to tell her story, with which she had interested the\nchildren for a long time. It was the same story which her grandmother\nhad told, when around the fire on winter nights young and old gathered\nto hear, while the winds howled and the snow covered the land. Once,\nMrs. Crinkles was a rosy maid, but now in Peking she was the oldest\nliving person among the Tartars.\n\nThe young women called her Mrs. Crinkles because of her face which was\nso wrinkled and puckered. Once while the old lady was telling her story\na mischievous maiden started to count how many wrinkles and puckers,\nthe old lady had in her face, but after reaching seventy-four she\nstopped, for fear there might be one pucker for every year; and the\nnumber 117 for some reason was thought to be unlucky.\n\nIn hobbled Mrs. Crinkles. She was already bowed with the weight of\nyears so that when she bowed still lower the court chamberlain,\nremarking that it beat the kow-tow itself, excused her from making the\nnine prostrations of her stiff old bones. In fact it was feared that if\nshe got down, she could never get up again. So she was allowed to sit\nand begin her story.\n\nHer speech was not in the polished Chinese tongue, which for ages since\nConfucius has been refined by poets and scholars and literary ladies\nand gentlemen, but was in plain Tartar, or Manchu. Yet the general\nstyle of her narrative was very fine. As the old lady told it with\nanimation and fine gestures all eyes sparkled and the Emperor\u2019s\nvisage\u2014they called it the Dragon Countenance\u2014beamed with delight.\n\nThis was the narrative:\n\nOn the other side of the Ever White Mountains, which divide Korea from\nManchuria, is the Land of Lakes. On one of these, as in a mirror, the\nglorious blue sky and the forms of the snow-covered, majestic mountains\nare reflected. At night when the stars come out the waveless mirror is\nspangled with jewels. The fame of this crystal clear flood and the\nlovely tints which the sunrise and sunset daily made upon it reached\neven to the skies. There were three lovely virgins who dwelt in the\nHeavenly palaces and they wanted to come down and bathe in the water of\nthis lake and live on its shores.\n\nPermission was given them by the Lord of Heaven, and descending to the\nearth they were as happy as fairies could be. They never tired of their\nenjoyment, seeing their own beautiful faces in the mirror of the lake.\nWhen they rose early in the morning, to see the golden sun rise and\ntint the clouds and waters, it seemed like music when song answered\nsong. When the light breezes rippled the surface of the lake they\nclapped their hands with delight and at bedtime they were lulled to\nsleep by the waves lapping on the quiet shore.\n\nThey fell in love with the beautiful land and became so charmed with it\nthat in time they forgot about their old home and never wished to go\nback again into the skies. They were very kind to all living things and\nespecially to the magpies. These feathered creatures were very\nplentiful and tame, so the maidens made pets of them and chose the\nmagpie as their sacred bird.\n\nFond of gazing into the blue above and bathing in the liquid blue\nbeneath, the three sisters went often into the lake. Leaving their\nrobes on the pebbly beach, the youngest one always stepped last into\nthe crystal waters. One day they noticed a magpie flying far above them\nin the air, which seemed to motion as if it had a message to deliver.\nOn coming near they saw that it bore in its bill a blood-red fruit.\nDescending near where their clothes lay on the beach it poised for a\nmoment, and then dropped the red fruit on the garment of the youngest\nof the sisters.\n\nRushing out of the water they sat down to talk over the wonderful\nincident. Then they agreed that this gift of the bird, which was sacred\nin their eyes, was a happy omen and meant that something good was to\nfollow, though the magpie, after circling around their heads, flew\naway. They divided the fruit, which had a most delicious taste,\nenjoying it also as a message from Heaven.\n\nFrom this divine token brought by a magpie, the sacred bird, the\nyoungest of the virgins conceived and bore a son. They named the baby\nboy Golden Family Stem, for they felt sure that he would grow up and\nbecome the founder of a dynasty of kings, who should take the name of\nGreat Bright from the shining water near which he was born.\n\nThe young mother brought up her boy to believe that he was not like\nordinary mortals but was Heaven-born, and therefore should be noble in\nall his actions. When he grew up he was to be a prince of peace healing\nthe quarrels of men, which should bring happiness and prosperity to\nthem and to all the world.\n\nSo in the shadow of the great mountains, which were so high that they\nseemed to touch the sky and were as the shadows of the eternal world\nitself, he grew up. Nothing did he love more than to watch the play of\nlight and shade on these mountain sides and in the valleys, as well as\nin the reflections on the fair face of the lake. These were to him as\nthe smile of the Great Guardian Spirit.\n\nBut by and by his dear mother\u2019s breath ceased and she \u201centered into the\nicy caves of the dead,\u201d and he found himself an orphan with no one near\nhim; for long since the other two virgins had gone away he knew not\nwhere.\n\nLeft alone instead of staying among the mountains the boy resolved to\ntake the name of Fancha, or Heaven-born, and to go out into the world\nand lead men.\n\nHe at once set about to build a boat and in this, when finished, he\nfloated down the outlet of the lake into a river. It happened that he\nlanded at a place where three tribes or clans were at war, each one\nwith the other. They were rude enough fellows, accustomed to brawls,\nand they cared nothing about other common fellows who were like\nthemselves and no better.\n\nBut when they saw this noble youth alone and unarmed step fearlessly\nover the gunwale of the boat and advance to meet them in a friendly\nway, they were mightily impressed at his noble appearance and his\ncourage in coming among them. When he told them the story of his birth,\nand that his mother had called him her Heaven-born son, they one and\nall shouted \u201cOur chief!\u201d and put on him the signs and tokens of\nlordship over them.\n\nAt once the Heaven-born youth became a great leader. At the head of his\nbrave warriors he was always victorious, but he never provoked war.\nOther tribes flocked to his standard and in time he built a city, and\nfor his wife and queen married a princess in the principal tribe, the\ndaughter of a great chief, and several sons were born in his home.\n\nBut wars continued, for the custom of fighting was too old to be given\nup at once. In one of the battles he and all his sons except one, who\nwas named Fancha, were killed. This one was chased by the enemy for a\nlong distance over the open plains; for they hoped to capture him and\nmake him their prisoner, before he could get into the forest and hide.\n\nBut when Fancha reached a dense dark wood a deliverer came to him in\nthe form of the sacred bird, the magpie. This creature settled on his\nhead, and Fancha at once took it to be the token of safety and to have\nbeen sent from Heaven.\n\nWhen his pursuers rushed into the forest and began their glances among\nthe trees looking around for the lad\u2019s hiding place, he stood as still\nas a post. They seeing the bird supposed the figure was a piece of\ndried wood or the splinter of a tree struck by lightning, and rushed on\nand past him. By and by they gave up the hunt: by which time, Fancha\nhad escaped to a place of safety.\n\n\u201cThe rest of the story Your Majesty knows,\u201d concluded the old lady,\n\u201cfor Fancha was your ancestor of seventeen generations ago.\u201d\n\nThe great Emperor of all the Chinas was intensely interested and deeply\nmoved at the story of the aged woman, and he loaded her with presents\nand honors, and created for her the office of Chief Story-Teller to the\nImperial children. Besides this he made provision for her comfort as\nlong as she lived. With a vermilion pencil he wrote with his own hand\nthe order that when she \u201cascended to the skies\u201d she should be buried in\na gilded sandal-wood coffin, receive a state funeral, have a marble\ntablet over her grave, and be awarded posthumous honors.\n\nAs for old Green Lamps he was raised one degree higher in office, given\nthe honors of wearing a jade button on his cap, and the right to ride\nin his palanquin nearer the Imperial palace door than any other\nmandarin, except the prime minister.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE SNEEZING COLOSSUS\n\n\nMr. Kim, who lived at the foot of the mountains, was a lazy lout. He\nhad a family to support, but he did not like steady work. He preferred\nto smoke his pipe\u2014as long as a yardstick\u2014and to wait for something to\nturn up.\n\nOne day, his wife, tired of trying to feed hungry children from empty\ndishes, gave her husband a good scolding and bade him begone and get\nsomething for the household. This consisted of father, mother, and four\nlittle folks, whose faces were not often washed, besides a little dog.\nThis puppy, when danger was near, always ran into the house through a\nlittle square hole cut in the door, and when safely within barked\nlustily.\n\nSo Mr. Kim went out to the mountains to find something\u2014a root of\nginseng, a nugget of gold, or some precious stone, perhaps, if he were\nlucky. If not, some berries, wild grapes or pears might do. Meanwhile\nat home, his wife pounded the grain that was left in the larder for the\nchildren\u2019s dinner.\n\nMr. Kim rambled over the rocks a long time without seeing anything\nworth carrying away. When it was about noon he came to one of the\nmighty mir-yeks, or colossal stone Buddhas, cut out of the solid\nmountain. It rose in the air many yards high. Ages ago in the days of\nBuddhism, when monasteries covered the land and Buddhist friars and\nnuns chanted Sanscrit hymns to the praise of Lord Buddha, devout men,\nlaboring many months, chiseled this towering colossus into human form.\nIts nose stood out three feet, its mouth was four feet wide. On its\nflat head was a cap, made of a slab of granite and shaped like a\nstudent\u2019s mortar-board, on which ten men could stand without crowding\none another.\n\nLong gone and forgotten were the monks, and the monastery had fallen to\nruins. The forest had grown up around the great stone image until it\nwas nearly hidden by the tall trees surrounding it. In front, from the\nground up, the wild grape-vines had gripped the stone with their\ntendrils and spread their matted branches and greenery until they\nnearly covered the image up to its neck.\n\nBut out of a crevice in the head of the figure grew a pear tree, sprung\nfrom a seed dropped long ago by the great-grandfather of one of the\nbirds singing and chirping near by. And, oh joy! at the end of the\nouter branch was growing a ripe, luscious pear nearly as big as a man\u2019s\nhead. What a prize! It would, when cut up, make a dessert for the whole\nfamily. Happy Kim! He blessed his lucky star.\n\nSeizing hold of the bushes and wild grape-vines, by dint of great\neffort Mr. Kim climbed upward and got as far as the chin of the great\nstone face. Above him protruded the big nose, the nostrils of which\ngaped like caverns. Yet although he was standing with his foot on the\nstone lips and holding on to the nose, despite all his exertions, he\ncould get no further up the granite face. He was at his wit\u2019s end. Far\nabove hung the delicious looking pear as if to tantalize him. A gentle\nbreeze was swaying the fruit to and fro, and it seemed to say, \u201cTake me\nif you can.\u201d\n\nBut the nose, being polished, was slippery and the ears were too smooth\nto climb. What could he take hold of? Surely to shin up any further was\nimpossible. Must he give up the pear?\n\nA bright thought entered his head. He would crawl up into the right\nnostril and hope for an exit to the top. So, thinking he might find his\nway he began like an insect to enter the hole and soon the man Kim\ndisappeared from sight, as with hands and feet he climbed into the\ndarkness.\n\nWasn\u2019t it dangerous to tickle the nostrils of the great stone man in\nthis way?\n\nBut whatever Kim may have thought he kept on, determined to get that\npear, come what might.\n\nSuddenly a blast loud enough to rend the mountain was heard. Hash-ho!\nHad an earthquake or tempest taken place? Was this rolling thunder?\n\nNo, the colossus had sneezed. Thus the stone man got rid of the\nintruder. The first thing Mr. Kim knew, he was flying through the air,\nand he tumbled upon the bushes. His wits were gone. He knew nothing.\nThis was about one o\u2019clock in the afternoon.\n\nMr. Kim lay asleep or unconscious till near sun-down. Then he woke up\nand realized what had happened. There was the stone nose beetling over\nhim far up toward the sky.\n\nBut in sneezing so hard, the colossus had shaken its head also and the\nbig pear had dropped off. Kim found it lying by his side, and picking\nit up went on his way rejoicing.\n\nAt home the little dog looking through the square hole saw him, barked\nwelcome, and a right merry supper they had over the big pear cut into\nslices, as Mr. Kim told the story of his adventures.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA BRIDEGROOM FOR MISS MOLE\n\n\nBy the river Kingin stands the great stone image, or Miryek, that was\ncut out of the solid rock ages ago. Its base lies far beneath the\nground and around its granite cap many feet square the storm-clouds\ngather and play as they roll down the mountain.\n\nDown under the earth near this mighty colossus lived a soft-furred mole\nand his wife. One day a daughter was born to them. It was the most\nwonderful mole baby that ever was known. The father was so proud of his\nlovely offspring that he determined to marry her only to the grandest\nthing in the whole universe. Nothing else would satisfy his pride in\nthe beautiful creature he called his own.\n\nFather Mole sought long and hard to find out where and what, in all\nnature, was considered the most wonderful. He called in his neighbors\nand talked over the matter with them. Then he visited the king of the\nmoles and asked the wise ones in his court to decide for him. One and\nall agreed that the Great Blue Sky was above everything else in glory\nand greatness.\n\nSo up to the Sky the Mole Father went and offered his daughter to be\nthe bride of the Great Blue, telling how with his vast azure robe the\nSky had the reputation, both on the earth and under it, of being the\ngreatest thing in the universe.\n\nBut much to the Mole Father\u2019s surprise, the Sky declined.\n\n\u201cNo, I am not the greatest. I must refer you to the Sun. He controls\nme, for he can make it day or night as he pleases. Only when he rises\ncan I wear my bright colors. When he goes down darkness covers the\nworld and men do not see me at all, but the stars instead. Better take\nyour charming daughter to him.\u201d\n\nSo to the Sun went Mr. Mole and though afraid to look directly into his\nface, he made his plea. He would have the Sun marry his attractive\ndaughter.\n\nBut the mighty luminary, that usually seemed so fierce, dazzling men\u2019s\neyesight and able to burn up the grass of the field, seemed suddenly\nvery modest. Instead of accepting at once the offer, the Sun said to\nthe father:\n\n\u201cAlas! I am not master. The Cloud is greater than I, for he is able to\ncover me up and make me invisible for days and weeks. I am not as\npowerful as you think me to be. Let me advise you to offer your\ndaughter to the Cloud.\u201d\n\nSurprised at this, the Mole Father looked quite disappointed. Now he\nwas in doubt as to what time he had best propose to the Cloud,\u2014when it\nwas silvery white and glistening in a summer afternoon, or when it was\nblack and threatening a tempest. However, his ambition to get for his\ndaughter the mightiest possible bridegroom prompted him to wait until\nthe lightnings flashed and the thunder rolled. Then appearing before\nthe terrible dark Cloud that shot out fire, he told of the charms of\nhis wonderful daughter and offered her as bride.\n\n\u201cBut why do you come to me?\u201d asked the Cloud, its face inky black with\nthe wrath of a storm and its eyes red with the fires of lightning.\n\n\u201cBecause you are not only the greatest thing in the universe, but you\nhave proved it by your terrible power,\u201d replied the Father Mole.\n\nAt this the Cloud ceased its rolling, stopped its fire and thunder and\nalmost laughed.\n\n\u201cSo far from being the greatest thing in the world, I am not even my\nown master. See already how the wind is driving me. Soon I shall be\ninvisible, dissolved in air. Let me commend you to the Wind. The Master\nof the Cloud will make a grand son-in-law.\u201d\n\nThereupon Papa Mole waited until the Wind calmed down, after blowing\naway the clouds. Then telling of his daughter\u2019s accomplishments and\nloveliness, he made proffer of his only child as bride to the Wind.\n\nBut the Wind was not half so proud as the Mole Father had expected to\nfind him. Very modest, almost bashful seemed the Wind, as he confessed\nthat before Miryek, the colossal stone image, his power was naught.\n\n\u201cWhy, I smite that Great Stone Face and its eyes do not even blink. I\nroar in his ears, but he minds it not. I try to make him sneeze, but he\nwill not. Smite him as I may, he still stands unmoved and smiling.\nAlas, no. I am not the grandest thing in the universe, while Miryek\nstands. Go to him. He alone is worthy to marry your daughter.\u201d\n\nBy this time the Mole Father was not only footsore and weary, but much\ndiscouraged also. Evidently all appreciated his shining daughter; but\nwould he be able, after all, to get her a worthy husband?\n\nHe rested himself a while and then proceeded to Miryek, the colossus of\ngranite as large as a lighthouse, its head far up in the air, but with\nears ready to hear.\n\nThe Mole Father squeaked out compliments to the image as being by\ncommon confession the greatest thing on earth. He presented his request\nfor a son-in-law and then in detail mentioned the accomplishments of\nhis daughter, sounding her praise at great length. Indeed, he almost\nruined his case by talking so long.\n\nWith stony patience Miryek listened to the proud father with a twinkle\nin his white granite eyes. When his lips moved, he was heard to say:\n\n\u201cFond Parent, what you say is true. I am great. I care not for the sky\nday or night, for I remain the same in daylight and darkness. I fear\nnot the sun, that cannot melt me, nor the frost that is not able to\nmake me crumble. Cold or hot, in summer or in winter time, I remain\nunchanged. The clouds come and go, but they cannot move me. Their fire\nand noise, lightning and thunder, I fear not. Yes, I am great.\u201d Then\nthe stone lips closed again.\n\n\u201cYou will make, then, a good bridegroom for my daughter? You will marry\nher, I understand?\u201d asked the proud father as his hopes began to rise,\nthough he was still doubtful.\n\n\u201cI would gladly do so, if I were greatest. But I am not,\u201d said Miryek.\n\u201cDown under my feet is the Mole. He digs with his shovellike hands and\nmakes burrows day and night. His might I cannot resist. Soon he shall\nundermine my base and I shall topple down and lie like common stone\nalong the earth. Yes! by universal confession, the Mole is the greatest\nthing in the universe and to him I yield. Better marry your daughter to\nhim.\u201d\n\nSo after all his journeying, the father sought no further. Advised on\nall sides, and opinion being unanimous, he found out that the Mole was\nthe greatest thing in the universe. His daughter\u2019s bridegroom was found\nat home and of the same family of creatures. He married her to a young\nand handsome Mole, and great was the joy and rejoicing at the wedding.\nThe pair were well-mated and lived happily ever afterward.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOLD WHITE WHISKERS AND MR. BUNNY\n\n\nWhite Whiskers was the name of a huge, tawny tiger that lived in the\nmountains of Kang Wen. He was the proudest tiger in the whole peninsula\nof Korea. He had the most fiery eyes, the longest tail, the sharpest\nclaws, and the widest stripes of any animal in the mountains. He could\npull down a cow, fight all the dogs in any village, eat up a man, and\nwas not afraid of a hunter, unless the man carried a gun. As for calves\nand pigs, he considered them mere tidbits. He could claw off the roof\nor break the bars of stables where cattle were kept, devour one pig on\nthe spot, and then, slinging another on his back, could trot off to his\nlair miles away, to give his cubs their dinner of fresh pork.\n\nWhite Whiskers was especially proud, because he was the retainer of the\ngreat genii of the mountains, that men feared and worshiped and in\nwhose honor they built shrines. One of these Mountain Spirits, when he\nwanted to, could call together all the tigers in his domain, and then,\nsitting astride the back of the biggest, he would ride off on the\nclouds or to victory over Korea\u2019s enemies. Both tigers and leopards\nwere his messengers to do his bidding. Only the big and swift and\nstriped tigers were chosen to carry out the Mountain Spirit\u2019s orders.\n\nOne particular matter of business confided to White Whiskers, the great\nstriped tiger, was to visit daily the shrines in the hill passes to see\nif offerings were continually made. The people who were in terror of\nboth the Mountain Spirit and his servants the tigers, daily offered\nsacrifice out of fear. They piled up stone, rags, bits of metal, or\nlaid food on dishes for the Mountain Spirit who was very exacting and\ntyrannical. The poor folks thought that if they did not thus heap up\ntheir offerings the spirit would be angry and send the tigers at night\nto prowl around the village, scratch at their doors, and eat up\ndonkeys, cows, calves, pigs, and even men, women and children. Then the\nhunters would go out with matchlocks to slay the man eaters, but by\nthis time, in daylight, the tigers were far up into their lairs in the\nmountain.\n\nIndeed, it was so hard to get a shot at a tiger that the Chinese, who\nlike to make fun of their neighbors in white coats, declared that\nduring one half of the year the Koreans hunt the tigers, and during the\nother half the tigers hunt the Koreans. That is, the men go out with\ntheir guns in summer; but in winter, when men keep within doors, the\nhungry wild beasts descend from the mountains for their prey.\n\nNow Old White Whiskers was both proud and crafty. For many years he had\neaten up pigs, calves, dogs, donkeys and chickens and had twice feasted\non men, besides avoiding all their traps and dodging every one of their\nbullets. So he began to think he could laugh at all his enemies. Yet,\nproud as he was, he was destined to be outwitted by a creature without\nstrength or sting, claws or hoofs, as we shall see.\n\nMr. Rabbit, who burrowed in a hill near the village, had often heard\nthe squealing of unfortunate pigs and the kicking of braying donkeys,\nas they made dinners for Old White Whiskers. Thus far, however, by\nbeing very cautious, he had kept out of the striped tyrant\u2019s way and\nmaw. But one cold winter\u2019s day, coming home, tired, weak and hungry,\nfrom having no food since yesterday, just as he was crossing a river on\nthe ice, he met Old White Whiskers face to face. From behind a rock by\nthe shore, near Mr. Bunny\u2019s burrow, the big tiger leaped out and tried\nto freeze the rabbit with terror, by staring at him with his great\ngreen eyes. Mr. Bunny knew only too well that tigers love to maul and\nplay with their prey before eating it up, and he thought his last hour\nhad come.\n\nNevertheless Mr. Bunny was perfectly cool. He did not shiver a bit. He\nhad long expected such a meeting and was ready for Old White Whiskers,\nintending to throw him off his guard.\n\nFully expecting, in a minute or two, to tear off the little animal\u2019s\nfur and grind his bones for a dinner, the tiger said to the rabbit:\n\n\u201cI\u2019m hungry. I shall eat you up at once.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, why should you bother with me?\u201d said Mr. Bunny. \u201cI\u2019m so little and\nskinny as hardly to make a mouthful for Your Majesty. Just listen to me\nand I\u2019ll get you a royal dinner. I\u2019ll go up the mountain and drive the\ngame to your very paws. Only you must do exactly what I tell you.\u201d\n\nAt this prospect of a full dinner, the tiger actually grinned with\ndelight. The way he yawned, showing his red, cavernous mouth, huge\nwhite teeth, each as big as a spike, and the manner of his rolling out\nhis long curved tongue, full of rough points like thorns, nearly scared\nMr. Bunny out of his wits. The rabbit had never looked down a tiger\u2019s\nmouth before, but he did not let on that he was afraid. It was only the\ntiger\u2019s way of showing how happy he was, when his mouth watered, and he\nlicked his chops in anticipation of a mighty feast.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll do just as you say,\u201d said Old White Whiskers to Mr. Bunny, seeing\nhow grateful the rabbit was to have his own life spared.\n\n\u201cIt is my ambition to serve the lord of the mountains,\u201d said Mr. Bunny.\n\u201cSo, lie down on the ice here, shut your eyes and do not stir. Now mind\nyou keep your peepers closed, or the charm will fail. I\u2019ll make a\ncircle of dry grass and then go round and round you, driving the game\nto you. If you hear a noise and even some crackling, don\u2019t open your\neyes till I give you the word. \u2019Twill take some time.\u201d\n\nOld White Whiskers, tired of tramping in the forest and prowling around\npig-pens all day but getting nothing, was both hungry and tired. So he\nresolved, while waiting, to take a good nap. As quickly as one can blow\nout a candle, he was asleep.\n\nThereupon Mr. Bunny made himself busy in pulling up all the dry grass\nhe could find and piling it around and close up to Old White Whiskers.\nDelighted to hear the big brute snoring, he kept on until he had a\nthick ring of combustibles. Then he set it on fire, waiting till it\nblazed up high. Then he scampered off to see the fun.\n\nOld White Whiskers, awakened by the crackling, yawned and rubbed his\neyes with his paws, wondering what the noise could be.\n\n\u201cHold on!\u201d screamed Mr. Bunny, \u201ckeep your promise,\u201d and farther he ran\naway up the hill.\n\n\u201cRascal!\u201d growled the tiger as the red tongues of flame leaped up all\naround him. He had to jump high to escape from the flames with his\nlife. Even as it was, one paw was scorched so that he limped, and his\nfur was singed so badly that all his long hair and fine looks were\ngone. When he got back home, the other tigers laughed at him.\n\nHenceforth he had to take second place, for the great Mountain Spirit\nno longer trusted such a stupid servant.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE KING OF THE FLOWERS\n\n\nKorea is the land of beautiful scenery and lovely flowers. Snow white\nand ruby red are their chief colors. In the spring time when the ice\nhas melted and the rivers have poured their floods into the sea, the\nwhole country blushes with the pink bloom of azaleas. The glens are\nwhite with lilies of the valley. The breezes as they sweep the land\ncome laden with perfume.\n\nThe girls mark the season of the year and the time of the month by the\nblossoms even more than by the almanac, for they keep in mind the\ncalendar of the flowers. Daughters that are especially beloved of their\nparents are named from the blossoms, and the Korean house-father, when\naffectionate, speaks of his wife as the plum tree. An old song says:\nThe homesick husband, long away from his dear ones, inquires of a\nfellow townsman newly arrived:\n\n\n          \u201c\u2018Have you seen my native land?\n            Come tell me all you know;\n            Did just before the old home door\n            The plum tree blossoms show?\u2019\u201d\n\n\nAnd the stranger answers promptly:\n\n\n          \u201c\u2018They were in bloom, though pale, \u2019tis true,\n            And sad, from waiting long for you.\u2019\u201d\n\n\nThis is like the Scotsman who calls his wife his \u201cbonnie briar bush,\u201d\nfor in the Land of Morning Glow, they have a language of flowers. Each\nplant and blossom has a meaning and either delightful or disagreeable\nassociations. It is a compliment to speak of a girl as a pear blossom,\nfor the pear is one of the most glorious of trees and its blooms are\nlovely to behold. It would hardly do, however, to call her a cinnamon\nrose, for this flower has evil associations. The gee-sang, as the\nKoreans pronounce the name of the gei-sha, as the Japanese call the\ndancing girls, are associated with the cinnamon rose, for did not the\nsages tell this story?\n\nTwelve centuries ago lived the renowned scholar Sul Chong, the greatest\nof all the learned men of Korea. His head was as full of knowledge as a\npersimmon is of pulp, and his ideas were as numerous as the seeds in a\npomegranate. He taught his countrymen all that was in the books of\nChina, and in the temple of Confucius his portrait hangs to this day.\nHe lived in the kingdom of Silla, in the days of its glory, when ships\nfrom Japan and China sailed into its seaports and the Arabs from Bagdad\nbrought their pretty wares to exchange for gold, ginseng, camphor,\nporcelain, cinnamon, ginger and tiger skins, to take to their renowned\nCaliph and his turbaned nobles at court, of whom we read in the\n\u201cArabian Nights.\u201d\n\nWhen the King of Silla, Sin Mun, was living in luxury and filling his\npalace with too many pretty dancing girls, who distracted his mind from\nattending properly to the affairs of state, Sul Chong warned his master\nagainst the increasing influence of these women by telling him the\nfollowing story:\n\nOnce upon a time, in spring, the Peony, king of the flowers, blossomed\nso gorgeously that it became the admiration of all the lovers of beauty\nin the whole country. Hundreds of people made long journeys to the\ncapital of Silla to see the bright blossoms. In the king\u2019s gardens, on\nvery tall stalks, the many branches were heavily laden with large red\nflowers. These were indeed lovely to behold, but the king of the whole\ngarden was a single peony, grown on one stem, so that all the strength\nand nourishment of the plant were concentrated in that unique royal\nbloom. All saluted this flower as king.\n\nWhen all the other flowers heard of their king\u2019s glory, they came to\npay their respects at the floral court, of which the Peony was\nsovereign. All the trees sent their choicest blooms as envoys. In one\nglorious procession of perfume and color the Peach, Plum, Pear, Apple,\nand Persimmon trooped in, each making its obeisance to the monarch of\nall flowers. All these tree blossoms prided themselves on their being\nso useful to man as harbingers of the delicious fruits to come.\n\nThen, among the bright throng appeared sprightly young virgin flowers,\nthe Tea-Rose, in pearl-tinted frock; the Azalea, in pink; the Lily, in\nwhite; the Strawberry Blossom; and a score of other pretty creatures of\nthe garden. Last of all appeared the Cinnamon Rose. She tripped nimbly\nalong in a green skirt and red jacket, with haughty air and breath of\nspice.\n\nOne after the other they were presented to King Peony, and gracefully\nmade their salute. But of them all, the king seemed most to favor Miss\nCinnamon Flower. He let the others pass out from the Court, but\nlingered long with the spicy visitor, spending much time in her\nsociety, as if smitten with her charms. By and by he invited Miss\nCinnamon Rose to come and live in the palace, and leaving his ministers\nto carry on the government, he spent all his time in her society. She\nwas installed in a place near His Majesty and seemed always to have his\near and attention, even when the king\u2019s prime minister had to wait long\nfor an audience, or even a word. Miss Cinnamon Rose seemed to be the\nreal ruler instead of the king himself.\n\nBut one day there came to the palace the flower called Old Man. He\nlooked exactly like an aged beggar dressed in sackcloth and leaning on\na staff. Respectfully bowing, he asked if he might share the\nhospitality of the king\u2019s palace. He was welcomed and fed, partaking of\nthe royal bounty. When at last he was given audience of King Peony, and\nwas invited to speak, he said:\n\n\u201cOut along the road, Your Majesty, I heard of your rich feast and good\nthings to eat. Now I hear that you need medicine. Although you dress in\nChinese silk and none are equal to you in the magnificence of your\nrobes and the splendor of your Court, yet you are much like me in your\nwants, and you need a common knife string, as well as I. Is it not so?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are quite right, Old Man,\u201d replied the king. \u201cYet I like this\nCinnamon Rose and want her with me. I cannot do without her.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, Your Majesty. Yet, is it not true that if you keep company with\nthe wise and prudent, your reign will be long, powerful and glorious?\nBut if you consort with the foolish your house will fall? Did not three\ndynasties of the emperors of Great China fall because of the beautiful\nwomen who tempted their Majesties to forget their duties? If it were so\nwith the ancients, how much more so is it now?\u201d\n\nThe king blushed, even to a deep crimson. He confessed his faults and\nreformed his life.\n\nIt is said the lesson was not lost on the real human king. He dismissed\nhis harem, sent away the dancing girls and ruled wisely till the day of\nhis death.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTOKGABI\u2019S MENAGERIE\n\n(Cats and Dogs)\n\n\nThere are many dogs, but few cats, in Korea. Nobody loves poor pussy\nthere. They are not made pets and are rarely seen in the houses of the\npeople. Even bull calves are more caressed by the children than are\ncats, and the puppy dog takes the place of Tabby or Grimalkin.\n\nKorean cats are not bob-tailed, like their cousins in Japan; nor is\npussy ever used, as the Chinese kitten is, to tell the time of day by\nthe width of the slits in its green eyes.\n\nAlas! the cats in Korea are too wild to enjoy the society of human\nbeings, or human beings theirs! The presence of dogs is especially\nhateful to them. Mother cats tell their kittens wonderful stories of\nthe cruelty of dogs and why cats and dogs do not agree.\n\nThe native roof-scramblers can howl and caterwaul, arch their backs,\nblow up their tails, spit and scratch, or purr pleasantly, lick their\nfur, and wash their faces with their paws like cats in other countries.\nThey are highly accomplished as mouse catchers and bird-eaters. Yet\nthey have a hard time of it, for there are too many dogs to make a\nkitty\u2019s life either easy or agreeable. The Korean cat hates to get its\nfeet wet, yet it is often obliged to wade in the water to get rid of\nthe dogs that chase it. As for the furry, purry kittens, one wonders\nhow they ever escape the fierce dogs and grow up at all.\n\nYet it all came about because a certain cat-ancestor laughed when it\nshouldn\u2019t have done so. Although it was a lot of school-children that\nmade Kitty laugh, the dog never forgave the cat for its frivolity. And\nthis is how it happened.\n\nLong, long ago, one of the mountain fairies had come down into the land\nfrom the high peaks, and being kindly treated by an old man named Tip\nPul, who kept a wine shop, called Tokgabi and bade him reward the old\nfellow with a precious stone.\n\nSo, one night, Tokgabi dropped the gem into Tip Pul\u2019s long-necked wine\nbottle. Strangely enough, after this, the wine never ceased. The bottle\nwas always full. Every day Tip Pul sold plenty to his neighbors and it\nwas good and cheap, so that the shopkeeper was very popular. Yet,\nwithout any refilling, the flask was always ready to overflow. So Tip\nPul had no fear of poverty in extreme old age. Having neither wife nor\nchildren, his only companions were a dog named Su Nap, or Snap, for\nshort, and a cat named Mee Yow. All three lived happily together in\nthese times of long ago.\n\nBut one day the bottle was found to be empty, and when Tip Pul shook\nit, nothing rattled inside. Somehow the magic stone had disappeared.\nPoverty now seemed certain. The old man was nearly paralyzed with grief\nand his neighbors all came in to sympathize with him. They knew well\nthat they could buy no wine anywhere else so good and so cheap as they\nhad long enjoyed at Tip Pul\u2019s shop by the river.\n\nYet this loss of the wonderful stone was the very making of Tip Pul\u2019s\npets. As for the cat, she became the most industrious kitty ever known.\nShe at once began to ransack every rat\u2019s quarters known, not only in\nher master\u2019s home, but in every house in the village, in search of the\nmissing stone. The racket which that cat kept up at night, among the\nrafters and beams under the roof, nearly drove some people crazy. They\ndeclared that Tokgabi had got drunk by tasting Tip Pul\u2019s drams. Yet it\nwas Mee Yow all the time. The cat knocked over tobacco boxes, scratched\namong hat covers hung on the wall, tipped up the hanging shelves and\nupset the crockery in the closet over the kitchen stove. In a word,\nthis four-footed creature played every kind of mischief that people\nusually ascribe to Tokgabi, the sooty imp.\n\nYet, when any one climbed up to the attic, looked among the rafters,\nand peered into the darkness, all he could see was a pair of green eyes\nthat shone like the moon. Poking the uncanny thing with fishing poles,\nor throwing shoes or sticks at it, only caused spitting or snarling. So\nthey knew it was a cat, and not Tokgabi, and betook themselves to bed\nagain. Laying their topknots on their wooden pillows and their bodies\non their oiled-paper carpet, they soon fell asleep again. The Koreans\ndo not swear, but the way some good folks hurled bad words on all the\nancestors of that cat, clear back to the time of Kija, was dreadful to\nthink of. Indeed, some of their remarks are still preserved in\ntradition and proverbs. Nevertheless, with all his pains taken, Mee Yow\ncould not find the magic wine-stone. As for Tip Pul, he got poorer and\npoorer.\n\nThe dog could not climb like Puss among the rafters and the roofs, but\nbeing able to run fast and having a nose that could smell a tiger a\nmile off, he made excursions all over the country, even crossing the\nice of the frozen river. Although he fought many another dog, chased\nmany a rat into its hole, and worried about a hundred cats, even\njumping into wood-sheds and running in and out among the cows and\nhorses, he found nothing. Once, while in a stall where the pony, tied\nup with a belly-band by ropes to the ceiling, was enjoying its supper\nof bean soup, the poor dog was nearly kicked to death. The vicious\nbrute, thinking that Snap was trying to steal some beans from its feed\nbox, gave the dog a blow with its hoofs that made Snap go on three legs\nfor a week afterward.\n\nThe long winter passed away and the ice melted, but the river water was\nstill cold. One day Pussy, while chasing a rat among the rafters of a\nhouse of a Yang-ban or gentleman, brushed its whiskers against a\ngreenish soapstone box, such as the king often sends as a present to\nthose whom he likes. Recognizing the smell of something inside as that\nof his master\u2019s long-lost gem, he tried hard by tooth and claw to open\nit.\n\nAll Pussy\u2019s scratching, biting and clawing, however, were in vain. Nor\ncould the dog help in the least. So a bargain was struck with the rats\nto gnaw open the box and get the magic stone. Both Su Nap and Mee Yow\npromised to let all rats and mice entirely alone for six months, if one\nof them would agree to gnaw open the box.\n\nDelighted at the prospect of peace and quiet for half a year, and\nespecially while the grain should be ripening, both rats and mice\nworked together, until out of a hole gnawed in the box, polished and\nhard on their teeth as it was, they got the magic stone. Carrying it in\ntheir paws, they dropped it where their former enemies, now so\npeaceful, could get it. At once the dog took the gem in his mouth and\nran to the river, Mee Yow following after.\n\n\u201cNow, Kit,\u201d said Snap, \u201cget on my back and hold tight to my neck-hair\nwith your claws, while I swim across. As I must breathe hard, put the\ngem in your mouth. Mind that you don\u2019t open your jaws, or yawn, or\nlaugh, till we get across. Do you hear?\u201d\n\nMee Yow wagged her tail and took the wine-stone firmly in her mouth in\ntoken of determination to deliver that precious gem safely to her\nmaster. All the time Mee Yow intended to jump ashore and run to her\nmaster, while the dog would be shaking off the water from his hair, and\nthus get the credit for first finding where the stone had been.\n\nIt was a long, hard swim and the dog\u2019s strength was nearly used up when\nonly two-thirds across the river, but the cat was happy, for she had\nonly to hold on and keep her feet dry. All went well until near the\nopposite shore.\n\nNow it happened just then that a party of children, out of school and\nready for fun, caught sight of the odd pair. They had never seen\nanything so funny in all their lives, and at once they laughed\nuproariously. Snap was too serious to pay any attention to their glee,\nbut Mee Yow, already tickled with vanity, became positively frivolous.\nShe too joined with the children and laughed so hard that Snap\u2019s body\nwas badly shaken, so that he nearly got his nose under water and\ndrowned them both. This made the light-headed and conceited cat laugh\nall the more. Finally bursting in a guffaw, Mee Yow dropped the gem out\nof her mouth, so that it was hopelessly lost in the river and fell to\nthe bottom.\n\nThat was too much for the dog, to have his labor thus wasted. Thinking\nonly of his master the faithful and serious Snap dived to the bottom of\nthe river, tumbling Mee Yow off. You may well believe though, much\nscratching and clawing took place before Puss let go and swam ashore.\n\nAlas! the dog could not find the precious gem, and when once on land he\nfirst shook himself to dry his hair and then rushed at the cat to give\nher a good shaking. But Mee Yow climbed up a tree, and though nearly\nfrozen to death after her icy bath, kept up growling as long as the dog\nbarked.\n\nAfter that, in Korea, the cats and dogs ceased to be friends. Indeed,\nthey never spoke to each other. Wild, unloved and unpetted, the cat\nbelongs to the bad animals in Tokgabi\u2019s museum, while the dog is the\nfaithful friend of man.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCAT-KIN AND THE QUEEN MOTHER\n\n\nKorea is called the Land of the Plum Blossom, but in winter the rivers\nfreeze over. Then the men cut through the ice which is often several\nfeet thick, to catch with their fishing lines and hooks the fish that\nswim in the water beneath. Yet they are very glad to welcome any sign\nof the coming spring, and they watch eagerly for the pussy willows to\nshow themselves.\n\nNow there was a farmer who lived in Nai-po, which is the grain garden\nof the Korean peninsula, who wanted a little daughter, though other\nparents cared more for sons.\n\nOne day farmer Pak, for that was his name, discovered a pussy willow\nwhich seemed to him, after the long winter, like a light shining in a\ndark place. He plucked it and carried proudly home this branch full of\nfuzzy little buds. This was a sign of his happiness at the return of\nspring. He was tired of ice and snow and now he knew that soon the\ngloomy hills would burst into a glory of bright colors from the\nblooming flowers, and look like an army with flags.\n\nThat same day his prayers were answered and a little girl was born into\nhis home. Giving the pussy willow to his wife, he said: \u201cWe shall name\nour baby Cat-kin, that is Little Puss.\u201d\n\nCat-kin never saw a cradle, for the Korean mothers carry their babies\non their backs. She was soon out of infancy, and then it was not long\nbefore she was standing up and toddling about and playing with her\ndoggie and pet bull. These little pets on four legs usually take the\nplace of kittens in a country home in Korea, for the cats are wild and\ndo not allow children to fondle them.\n\nLong before she was a dozen years old, Cat-kin became very fond of\nfairy stories, of which Korea has a great many, besides thousands of\ntales of wonderful people and animals and what happened to them. She\noften looked up towards the high hills and distant mountains, where she\nthought the fairies, dragons, ogres and tigers lived. Here also dwelt\nthe sen-nin or mountain spirits, wise and good, of whom the old people\ntalked and the soldiers painted on their banners when they went to war.\n\nWhen about eight years old, Cat-kin wanted very much to walk up towards\nthe north star, which her father showed her shining in the heavens. He\nhad once traveled up into one of the Northern provinces, where during\nthe daytime he could see afar off the great snow-white mass of the Ever\nWhite Mountain rising up to meet the azure sky. There, at the top he\nhad heard, lay the Dragon Prince\u2019s Pool, out of which flowed the two\nrivers that made Korea an island. One was named the Tumen and the other\nthe Yalu, after the beautiful green and blue sheen on the feathers of a\ndrake\u2019s back, so richly colored were its shining waters. When her\nfather told of his travels, Cat-kin also longed to go north to get to\nthe very top and touch the sky.\n\nBut this she knew she could not do, even if she had had long legs and\nwere as strong as a man, for the tigers were very numerous and always\nroaming about. These yellow and black striped brutes were man-eaters.\nThey loved nothing better for a good dinner than a young girl.\n\nSo as she did not know any way of getting to the top of the Ever White\nMountain and of seeing the deep blue waters of the Pool, except by\nriding on the back of a dragon, which she sometimes dreamed of, she\nkept waiting and waiting for one of these flying creatures to come, yet\nit never came.\n\nCat-kin was bound to have the fairies visit her, if possible. So one\nday, sitting under a persimmon tree and reading a story, she held the\nbook in one hand, while she struck the ground several times, saying\nearnestly:\n\n\u201cEarth-spirit, earth-spirit, come to me; come up and see me.\u201d\n\nAll of a sudden the air seemed heavy with sweet perfume, and a silver\nmist like a cloud spread over her house and garden. Then a bright\ndazzling light flooded everything and there stood before her a\nglistening chariot, made of blue jade with golden wheels. It was drawn\nby milk-white horses and on a seat of shining silver sat the Western\nHeavenly Queen Mother herself.\n\nAttendant upon the Mother Queen were thousands of the most beautiful\nmaidens, who were all dressed in resplendent robes. They wore amber\nornaments, and silver girdles, and necklaces of precious stones and\nsilken robes with many tassels. Their feet were shod with gold\nembroidered velvet slippers, and on their heads were caps of gold\nstudded with glittering gems. Cat-kin could hardly count the rich\nornaments, necklaces, breast chains and the jade wands, like sceptres,\nwhich they held in their hands. These were shaped like lotus flowers.\nThe faces of all these maidens were rosy, their eyes sparkled, and all\nhad small hands and feet.\n\nIn a voice of great sweetness that sounded like music the Heavenly\nQueen Mother looked at Cat-kin and spoke to her, saying:\n\n\u201cCome forward, little maid, fear not. I shall take you with me to my\npalace, in the Island of Gems and give you all you want, besides\nshowering blessings on your people, if you will come.\u201d\n\nCat-kin did not feel at all timid or frightened, but came boldly\nforward and knelt at the base of the chariot.\n\nThe Mother Queen first touched her with her milk-white jade wand, that\nwas carved like a lotus bud, and made the little girl rise.\n\nIn a moment more, a silver chariot, with wheels made of turquoise and\ndrawn by two young milk-white dragons, wheeled up close to her, and the\nattendant lady in golden robes bade her step in.\n\nThe dragons were fierce, powerful, fire-breathing creatures, with wide\nspreading wings, and their bodies and tails together were of the length\nof whales, while their eyes darted fire. Yet Cat-kin was not at all\nafraid, and thought it was great fun. Then up through and far above the\nclouds the host of bright beings flew. They followed the Queen Mother\u2019s\nchariot until, far away, they poised in mid-sky. Cat-kin was then told\nto look over the side of the chariot to the earth and ocean, miles and\nmiles below. She was asked if she could recognize her father\u2019s cottage,\nbut she could not. The whole village looked only like a grey mass of\nthatched roofs, and she could pick out only the temple.\n\nThere, spread out, was the great sea, as blue as a sapphire, and in\nplaces deep green, like an emerald, but she could see no ships nor any\ncoast or shores, nor any ranges of mountains, nor signs of the land of\nKorea. Nothing but ripples and waves were visible. Yet in the center of\nthe azure sea was an island. The trees were emeralds and the roofs of\nthe houses were of gold, and the windows diamonds. These were so full\nof light that no lamps were necessary.\n\nBeautiful beings, all maidens, as lovely in garb and face as those who\nfilled the train of the Queen Mother, walked or played, or sang in the\ngardens. Or swam and sported in the sapphire waves, or rowed and sailed\nabout in boats that seemed as if made of marble, they were so white.\n\nAt a signal from the Queen the singing ceased. Then there rose up wave\nupon wave of sweetest melody from the players on instruments who were\nin the gardens below.\n\nCat-kin thought she heard at intervals the chorus, sounding out the\nwords, rising upward like pulses, through the air, \u201cWelcome lovely\nmortal! Our Queen invites and we greet thee! Manifold be her gifts to\nthee and thine! Come, thou honored among all Korean maidens! Come to us\nand join our band and we shall love thee as one of ourselves.\u201d\n\nIn the wink of a falcon\u2019s eye\u2014so short a time it seemed\u2014the Mother\nQueen and her host descended.\n\nAs the chariots touched the island, a bevy of radiant maidens came\nforward, some to attend the Queen Mother and some to lead Cat-kin into\nher own room in the palace. There the most gorgeous robes were put on\nher, beside a cap begemmed with glittering, precious stones of various\ncolors, and a pair of gold-embroidered velvet slippers.\n\nCat-kin was surprised when one of the shining maidens set a royal tiara\nadorned with five gems upon her brow.\n\n\u201cFor me?\u201d she asked in surprise.\n\n\u201cYes for you, whom the Heavenly Mother Queen would honor.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what do these five gems, jade, crystal, malachite, amber and agate\nsignify?\u201d asked Cat-kin.\n\n\u201cAh, that is not for us to tell you, but the Queen Mother ordered\nthese. Tomorrow she will explain to you the secret of each gem.\u201d\n\nCat-kin walked about freely, enjoying the lovely sights and sounds. She\nalso ate with keen appetite and to her full of the delicacies set on\nthe table before her. Yet never once did she feel sleepy, nor see any\nbeds, nor hear anyone talk of retiring. She wondered what they meant\nwhen they said \u201ctomorrow\u201d; for she could see no sun or moon or\ntwilight. However, she did not think long about such things, and by and\nby forgot all about them.\n\nWhen the entire court and all the hosts of the Queen Mother\u2019s\nattendants had assembled, Her Majesty\u2019s chamberlain read the\nproclamation, which declared that the Queen looked with great favor\nupon the Korean people, and had decided to bestow great gifts upon\nthem. For this purpose, she had selected and brought to her palace the\nKorean maid named Cat-kin, to endow them through this, their daughter,\nwith five precious traits of disposition and character. In token of\ngracious thought and tender love, Her Majesty would now present and\nexplain the meaning of the five precious gems. These were jade,\ncrystal, malachite, amber, and agate.\n\nCat-kin kneeled down before the Queen, who placed in Cat-kin\u2019s hands\nthe shining gems, while an attendant fairy took them from her opened\npalm and placed each one of them on vermilion velvet, edged with gold.\nThen five maidens stood by, each with a gem laid on a cushion.\n\nAfter the ceremony of presentation was over, the Queen made a speech,\nwhich told the Korean maiden\u2019s fortune and her future.\n\nCat-kin would be sent back over the clouds and ocean to the King\u2019s\npalace in the capital of her home land, and there be made a princess.\nMany nobles and king\u2019s sons from other countries, hearing of her beauty\nand her wonderful visit to the Island of Gems would come to pay her\ncourt as suitors. Many would ask for her hand, to be wedded to her; but\nshe was to marry none but the king\u2019s son, a prince of her own people.\n\n\u201cTake these gems, fair maiden, and bestow their virtues and what they\nmean upon your people,\u201d said the Queen. \u201cA thousand years from now\u2014as\nmen count time\u2014we together will visit Korea again.\u201d\n\nThen both the Queen and Cat-kin, stepping into the silver chariot,\ndrawn by the fire-breathing dragons, plunged on and mounted up into\nspace. First they sailed above the clouds and then dipped downwards,\nsteering to Korea and over the mountains, bearing their precious charge\nto the capital. They reached the ground in a cloud and the wheels of\nthe chariot stood still before the palace gate.\n\nYet before any mortal eyes could see their full forms, the Queen Mother\nand the dragons had disappeared, and Cat-kin stood alone, a resplendent\nmaiden of dazzling appearance and in the robes given by the Heavenly\nQueen Mother, which all recognized at once as coming from the Island of\nGems.\n\nA throng of court ladies and palace attendants and a long line of\nnobles and princes were already waiting for the maiden, who they knew\ncame gift-laden from the Queen Mother, of whom all had heard from\nchildhood. The five gems were laid, each in a covered casket of\nperfumed wood, encrusted with gold on top and inlaid with\nmother-of-pearl.\n\nEscorted into the throne room by a bevy of princesses, the Heavenly\nMother\u2019s gifts in the five caskets were reverently placed on silken\nfans, spread out on a table having on its top the five cushions of\ncrimson velvet.\n\nThen, by lot and word of the diviners, the choice of a first drawing\nwas awarded to a prince of fair face and mien. The other four nobles,\none by one and in turn, approached and each was allowed to choose one\nof the caskets, all of which looked alike, and none was to be opened\nuntil the possessor was in his own home.\n\nNow these were the gifts for body and mind, of which the polished gems\nwere the tokens. According as each prince chose and received, so with\nthe trait, which each gem signified, would his children and posterity\nbe endowed. In the course of centuries, these would become the national\nfeatures, of twenty millions of Koreans.\n\nOne by one the caskets were opened by each prince, and therein he\ndiscovered what was a trait in the character of the Korean people.\nThese were:\n\nProcrastination\u2014Putting off until tomorrow, or some other time, what\nought to be done today, and keeping back not only one person but the\nwhole nation.\n\nHospitality\u2014Always glad to see friends, to entertain people, even\nstrangers, and to take care of relations, even to the making of one\u2019s\nself poor\u2014a habit carried too far as the years and centuries rolled on.\n\nInexactness\u2014The habit of not usually thinking clearly, counting\ncorrectly, or stating facts precisely, and when telling a story of\n\u201cblowing a conch;\u201d that is, of exaggerating.\n\nLove of family\u2014How the mothers and fathers in Korea do love their\nchildren, their kinsfolk and their relatives!\n\nSense of humor\u2014A Korean can always see the funny side of things. He\nloves to joke and he bears his troubles well, because he likes to\nsmile. As for the girls, they laugh as easily as the rain falls, or the\nflowers bloom.\n\nAnd what the Queen Mother predicted came true. Just as five fingers\nmake up the hand, so the average people among the Koreans are known by\nthe five traits, for better or for worse.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAGIC PEACH\n\n\nOut on the ocean, so far away that no ship ever sailed there, is an\nisland on which stood the seven storied palace of the royal lady, Su\nWang Moo. In our language, this title means Western Queen Mother. She\nis always ready to help good mortals with her gifts and favors.\n\nOn this island thousands of genii wait to obey the commands of the\nQueen Mother. She has also chariots of silver and gold drawn by\ndragons, by which she sends her messages everywhere.\n\nThe genii and most of the shining maidens stay at home to fulfill the\nQueen\u2019s commands. In addition to these servants, she has hundreds of\nazure pigeons, which she often despatches to far-off places. In their\nbills, or under their wings, they carry some gift or promise to make\npeople happy.\n\nIn the mind of many a Korean maiden there rises the dream, or there\nwells up the hope, that some day the Western Queen Mother will send to\nher pretty clothes of silk, with necklaces of jewels, a handsome youth\nto wed her, and a silver ring for the marriage ceremony.\n\nThen she pictures to herself how splendidly she will be arrayed and how\nfine she will look in the costume of a bride; how her long black hair\nwill be done up very high, with flowers and rosettes over the crown of\nher head, and ermine-edged slippers will be put on her feet. She\nwonders how she will feel when she drinks the cups of sacramental wine\nthat make her a wife, after which she will go with her husband and bow\nto the memorial tablets of his ancestors.\n\nShe goes all over in her mind the happy times she will have in her\nhusband\u2019s home. What she hopes for most, after all these things, is to\nhave a kind mother-in-law. Then she will be a queen in her own little\nkingdom, with plenty of rice and kimchi, and cakes and goodies.\n\nSo it is that many Korean maidens go out under the blue sky to look up\nat the stars, or on moonlight nights scan the heavens to see if the\nbirds are coming. Hoping to greet the azure pigeons, they put on their\nbest clothes and watch. Many are their dreams.\n\nOh! how many lads also dream of the genii and of the riding on the\ndragon\u2019s back, to cross the mountain ranges and the great oceans, and\nto visit strange, far-off countries; or, they think of the pink coat\nwhich they will wear. The pink coat shows that the lad is engaged to be\nmarried and will, when grown up, be a husband to the little girl who\nmay be in her cradle days; for in Korea children and even babies in\narms are engaged to be married to other children.\n\nThen the boy pictures the day when the long braid of hair, which he now\nhas to wear down his back, shall be tucked up into a topknot, like a\nman\u2019s. No matter how old a bachelor may be, he must wear this boy\u2019s\nbraid of hair. He must not speak, or talk with his elders, without\nfirst asking permission. He must be \u201cseen and not heard\u201d in company,\nand every one treats him as a child. So the boy also waits for the\nazure pigeons to come, for to be engaged to be married even when quite\nyoung, or to have a wife when older, means a great deal.\n\nThen the young husband will wear a wide brimmed hat after school and go\nup to the city, with his fellow villagers, to try at the literary\nexaminations. They will all march together, under a banner tufted at\nthe top with pheasant feathers. If he passes successfully, he will be\nwelcomed home with a parade and band of music. By and by, he will\nbecome a magistrate and have a string of amber beads over his ear, and\nwear on his breast a square of gold-embroidered velvet. Servants will\ncarry him in a palanquin and his men will carry wooden paddles to\npunish folks who break the laws. Then he can strut about, in starched\nwhite flowing clothes, with the common people all afraid of him. No\nwonder that the boy waits for the coming of the blue pigeon!\n\nNow in the gardens of the Queen\u2019s Palace, on the Island of Gems, there\ngrow wonderful fruits of a rich, ripe color, brilliant with light and\nsheen. These, when served at the banquets and eaten, have the power of\nmaking the guest live very long, even for thousands of years.\n\nEspecially powerful is the celestial peach of longevity, which is\nserved on little golden tables, its juice makes an old person\u2019s body\nnew, so that one who eats the peach will live hundreds of years.\n\nSometimes the Queen sends one of these fruits to her favorites on the\nearth. Yet no one can ever get any of these peaches, unless the Queen\nherself gives them, and the peach trees are always jealously guarded by\ngenii and dragons. None, even of the Queen\u2019s servants, or her waiting\nmaids, or any of the genii, or dragons, can bestow the peach of\nlongevity on mortals.\n\n\n\nNow it happened that the Queen, hearing of the virtues of a certain\nking\u2019s son, despatched one of her lovely maidens, in one of her ten\nthousand dragon chariots, inviting him to visit Her Majesty, in the\nIsland of Gems. She sent a message also to the prince\u2019s parents,\ntelling them that their son would return before the end of the moon,\nwhich was then in its first quarter.\n\nHis anxious mother, who had a bride already picked out for her son to\nwed, warned him against looking too long at the lovely princesses, or\npretty maids in the Queen\u2019s Palace of Gems. In truth she had her\nlurking suspicions. She feared for her darling son, that, beneath their\nrosy faces and moon-like eyes, they were really sirens, possibly even\nsea monsters in female form, and might eat him up.\n\nShe also urged him to be very careful as to etiquette. He must be\nespecially decorous, because the code of behavior and manners might not\nbe the same as those among polite people upon the earth. Moreover, he\nmust notice and hear everything and, when he came back home, tell her\nall about it.\n\nOn the other hand, the Queen of the Island of Gems warned the lovely\nmaiden, a princess whom she sent, to beware lest the prince might fall\nin love with her, either on the way, or when at the island. If he tried\nto persuade her to marry him and to stay on the earth and not come back\nto the Island of Gems, and to her duties to the Queen, the palace maid\nwould be disgraced and die early.\n\nAlthough the Queen laughed when she said it, and quoted the proverb,\n\u201cDon\u2019t trust a pigeon to carry grain,\u201d she was really very serious, and\nthe maiden knew that it would not do to thwart the royal wishes.\n\nSo this discreet princess made a firm resolve to be very careful. She\ndecided that when she met the prince she would be very cold in her\nbearing. When delivering the Queen\u2019s invitation, she would appear to\nthink it only a matter of business, though very important. She would\nnot stay more than an hour in the prince\u2019s mansion.\n\nWhen the dragon chariot was returning homeward she would be silent. She\nwould hold no conversation, nor speak a word, nor let the prince sit\nbeside her, but she would keep in the front seat nearest the dragon,\nwhile he should ride on the great creature\u2019s back.\n\nSo it was a very quiet journey which the prince made, while the chariot\nsped over the clouds, with the earth and oceans lying far beneath. Part\nof the time he sat on the dragon\u2019s back, as if in a saddle, but after a\nwhile he climbed back into the chariot again, and all the time he was\nso thrilled with the speed and the grandeur of it all that, to tell the\ntruth, he forgot all about the lovely princess who had brought the\nQueen\u2019s message, until he found himself at the Queen\u2019s Palace of Gems\nand was invited to step out of the chariot.\n\nSoon he was seated with others, similarly honored, at the table which\nwas loaded down with dishes of gold and silver which were heaped with\nthe choicest viands. The guests, all in fine clothes like the prince,\nwere waited on by shining maidens of exquisite beauty and robed in\ngolden garments gemmed with glittering jewels of the most precious\nworkmanship.\n\nUpon one of these lovely creatures, a maiden who seemed to be about\nsixteen, not far away from where he sat, the prince cast his eyes. She\nwas kneeling on the floor ready to do his bidding. He was so filled\nwith admiration at her loveliness that he could hardly pay any\nattention to the talk at the table. Despite his mother\u2019s warning, he\nmade several mistakes in propriety.\n\nYet his appetite was very good after his long journey and he ate\nheartily of the delicious fare. Towards the end of the feast, feeling\nin a jolly mood, he picked up one of the peaches. Then he pared and\nsliced it, greatly enjoying its juicy nectar. Every morsel of the pulp,\nas he put it in his mouth, made him feel as if he were gaining a\ncentury of vigor. He knew he was lengthening his life and increasing\nhis power to enjoy the pleasures of which he had always been very fond.\n\nIndeed the prince was far less of a scholar and student than he ought\nto have been. Often at home when his teachers were all present and\nready to begin the tasks of the day, the lad was still out at play. His\nolder sister used to say laughingly of her brother, \u201cHe never let his\nstudies interfere with his education.\u201d\n\nYet every moment this maiden kneeling near him seemed to grow more\ncharming in both face and form, dress and adornment, ease and grace of\nmotion. Indeed she seemed the very embodiment of all loveliness, and\nthe prince could not keep his eyes off her. He did not know that this\nwas the effect of eating the peach of longevity, for the maiden was\nreally no prettier at the end of the banquet than she had been at the\nbeginning. The change was in him, not in her.\n\nSo intoxicated was the prince, that he so far forgot himself and what\nhis mother had told him not to do, that he picked out one of the\nfinest-looking of the peaches from its golden basket on the table and\ntossed it over to the pretty maiden.\n\nOn her part the maid of honor had herself been so wrapped up in\nadmiration of the young and princely guest, that when he motioned that\nhe was about to toss a peach to her she broke the rule of the Palace of\nGems. She threw out her hands and caught the peach deftly, as if\nplaying ball.\n\nThe palace ladies were all horrified. They had been taught that, except\nto perform the duties of waiting and serving, they were to pay no\nattention to anything the guests might say or do. When heated with wine\nthe guests might be only making sport of the attendants. They were to\ndecline any personal attentions and continue in their duty of serving.\nBut instead of averting her gaze, or bowing low with her face to the\nground, or having her eyes downcast, the maid, actually threw out her\nhands, caught the peach and, to the horror of all who saw her, bit into\nit and swallowed the morsel.\n\nWhat it was that happened the very next moment even the fairies could\nnot tell or exactly remember; for a golden mist seemed to fall in the\nbanquet hall, enveloping everything.\n\n\n\nIt happens that just here in the story a great gap occurs. At such a\npause the Korean story-teller, who sits in his booth in one of the back\nstreets of Seoul, would stop and send his boy to take up a collection\nfrom the crowd. Nor would he go on, until all had been invited to give\nand the coins rattled in the gourd shell.\n\nWhen he began again some said it was the same story continued. Others\nwere sure it was a new story, but that the palace maid and the prince\nwere the same who had been in the banquet hall of the Western Queen\nMother, in the Island of Gems and that the peach had never lost, since\nit never could lose its virtues, because given by the Queen. But such\nas it was, this is the way the story ran on:\n\n\n\nMore than a thousand years afterwards it was known that in the high\nmountains of the Ever White range lived a holy man, a hermit, who was\nhonored, almost worshiped by the people in that region. In the summer\ntime hundreds of pilgrims visited his hut to hear wise words about how\nto live and do good, and then to receive the hermit\u2019s blessing. Even\nthe wild beasts appeared to be tame in his presence. At any rate, they\nnever tried to bite or devour one another, or hurt the old man or to\ndestroy his humble shelter. The tigers, the leopards and the bears\nseemed to forget they had claws, or teeth; while their little cubs\nplayed peacefully with each other.\n\nThe dress of this hermit was of the ancient style of a thousand years\nbefore, of the time of the ancient dynasty of Ko.\n\nOne day while out on one of his walks this old, white-bearded hermit\nmet a woman of fair countenance, who seemed to be quite young, for her\nface was unwrinkled and rosy. It appeared that she had travelled far,\nyet she walked with the springing step of a maiden who was still in her\nteens. Her dress betokened that of ages gone, for it was of the sort\nand fashion which are revealed in the cave pictures painted on the\nwalls of the dolmens, or the colossal stone chambers, in which kings\nand mighty men were buried, ten or fifteen centuries ago, which are\nvery many in Korea.\n\nThe hermit and maid met in the path under the tall pine tree and\nexchanged greetings, the lady bowing very low. Then, as she looked up\nin his eyes, her face became radiant with joy as if she recognized a\ndear friend.\n\nThe sage inquired who she was, and whether she were the wandering lady,\nof whom rumor spoke of having been seen during centuries, over all the\nnine provinces of Korea, by people who were great grandfathers, as well\nas by the children of that day.\n\nThen she told her story.\n\nShe was the same palace maid, who, in the Western Queen Mother\u2019s palace\non the Island of Gems had waited upon him, once a gay prince and now\nthe holy hermit. Then again she bowed low.\n\nFor catching and eating the peach which the princely guest had tossed\nto her, and thus breaking the rules of the palace, the Queen had\nordered her banishment for a thousand years.\n\nBut during all this time she had been seeking the prince who tossed her\nthe peach of longevity; for she knew that neither she nor he could die,\ntill the thousand years had passed. Yet none of the men she met,\nhowever handsome, learned or wealthy, reached her ideal of the youth\nshe had seen so long ago. Not finding him, she went back to the Island\nof Gems, traveling on a dragon\u2019s back, and humbly begged the Queen to\nextend her term of life, until she should meet the one she loved so\ndearly, even if she found him only after hundreds of years more of\nwandering and of hope deferred.\n\nThe Mother Queen listened to her petition and was gracious and extended\nthe maiden\u2019s life. So on the earth she kept up her wanderings. Now,\nhaving met the holy hermit she was happy, for she felt sure that she\nhad found the same prince, venerable in appearance though he was, for\nshe could see his soul.\n\nThe hermit listened with delight to the lady\u2019s story of her life in the\npalace and of her wanderings, during a thousand years in search of one\nshe loved; and, especially, that she had been willing to have the\nMother Queen order her future.\n\nAs for the hermit, his long white beard which swept his breast fell\noff, his bald head was in a moment covered with luxuriant black hair,\nand he became young again in her presence, with springing step and\nbright eyes. He could not be more rosy in countenance, for the pure\nlife he had led had kept his skin pink. They spent many hours together,\nin talking long and joyfully over their experiences in the Island of\nGems.\n\nThen both agreed that now, since they had met again, they would bow\ngladly to the Queen\u2019s decision concerning them both, and do whatever\nHer Majesty ordered.\n\nBut already by a flying dragon that was famous for gathering up news\nfrom all parts of the universe, the Queen had been told of the meeting\nof the lovers in the mountain path, and of their pious resolve to\ncommit their future to Her Majesty in the Island of Gems.\n\nSuddenly the pair of lovers heard near the mountain top a sound of\nsweet music, as of some fairy playing on a lute, and at every second\nthe sounds seemed to come lower and nearer. Soon a great white cloud of\nsweet smelling odors, like incense, enveloped them. What was their\nsurprise to see a golden chariot drawn by two dragons, whose eyes were\nlike emeralds, come up close to where they stood. Both of them,\nprince-hermit and maid were then taken up into the chariot and borne\nswiftly over cloud, and mountain and sea, to the Island of Gems. There\nthe Queen ordered them to be married, and, after a splendid wedding,\nthey lived happily ever after.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER\n\n\nAges ago, there lived a great Fire Spirit inside of a mountain to the\nsouthwest of Seoul, the capital of Korea. He was always hungry and his\nfood was anything that would burn. He devoured trees, forests, dry\ngrass, wood, and whatever he could get hold of. When those were not\nwithin his reach, he ate stones and rocks. He enjoyed the flames, but\nthrew the hard stuff out of his mouth in the form of lava.\n\nThis Fire Monster spent most of his time in a huge volcano some\ndistance away, but in sight of the capital. The city people used to\nwatch the smoke coming out of the crater by day and issuing in red\nfire, between sunset and sunrise, until all the heavens seemed in\nflames. Then, they said, the Fire Spirit was lighting up his palace. On\ncloudy nights the inside of the volcano glowed like a furnace. The\nmoulten mass inside the crater was reflected on the clouds, so that one\ncould almost see into the monster\u2019s belly.\n\nBut nothing tasted so good to the Fire Eater as things which men built,\nsuch as houses, stables, fences, and general property. An especial\ntitbit, that he longed to swallow, was the royal palace.\n\nLooking out of its crater one day, he saw the king\u2019s palace all silver\nbright and brand new, rising in the City of Seoul. Thereupon he\nchuckled, and said to himself, for he was very happy:\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s a feast for me! I\u2019ll just walk out of my mountain home and eat\nup that dainty morsel. I wonder how the king will like it.\u201d\n\nBut the Fire Spirit was in no hurry. He felt sure of his meal. So he\nwaited until his friend, the South Wind, was prepared to join him.\n\n\u201cLet me know when you\u2019re ready,\u201d said the Fire Spirit to the South\nWind, \u201cand we\u2019ll have a splendid blaze. We\u2019ll go up at night and enjoy\na lively dance before they can get a drop of water on us. Don\u2019t let the\nrain-clouds know anything about our picnic.\u201d\n\nThe South Wind promised easily, for she was always glad to have a\nfrolic.\n\nSo when the sun went down and it was dark, the Fire Spirit climbed out\nof his rocky home in the volcano and strode toward Seoul. The South\nWind pranced and capered with him until the streets of the capital were\nso gusty that no one with a wide-brimmed hat dared go outdoors, lest,\nin a lively puff, he might lose his head-gear. As for the men in\nmourning, who wear straw hats a yardstick wide and as big and deep as\nwash-tubs, they locked themselves up at home and played checkers. By\nthe time all the palace guards were asleep the Fire Spirit was ready.\nHe said to the South Wind:\n\n\u201cBlow, blow, your biggest blast, as I begin to touch the roofs of the\nsmaller houses. This will whet my appetite for the palace, and then\ntogether we\u2019ll eat them all up.\u201d\n\nNot till they heard a mighty roar and crackling did the people in Seoul\npush back their paper windows to find out what was the matter. Oh, what\na blaze! It seemed to mount to heaven with red tongues that licked the\nstars. Those who could see in the direction of the palace supposed the\nsun had risen, but soon the crash of falling roofs and mighty columns\nof smoke and flame, with clouds of sparks, told the terrible story. By\nthe time the sun did rise, there was nothing but a level waste of\nashes, where the large buildings had been. Even the smoke had been\ndriven away by the wind.\n\nWhen the king and his people in the palace enclosure, who had saved\ntheir lives by running fast, thought over their loss, they began to\nplan how to stop the Fire Monster, when he should take it into his head\nto saunter forth on another walk and gobble up the king\u2019s dwelling.\n\nA council of wise men was called to decide upon the question. Many long\nheads were bowed in hard thought over the matter. All the firemen,\nstone-cutters, fortune-tellers, dragon tamers, geomancers and people\nskilled in preventing conflagrations were invited to give their advice\nabout the best way to fight the hungry Fire Demon.\n\nAfter weeks spent in pondering the problem they all agreed that a\ndragon from China should be brought over to Korea. If kept in a swamp\nand fed well, he would surely prevent the Fire Imp from rambling too\nnear Seoul. Besides, the dragon knew how to amuse and persuade the\nSouth Wind not to join in the mischief.\n\nSo, at tremendous cost and trouble, one of China\u2019s biggest dragons,\ncapable of making rain and of spouting tons of water on its enemies,\nwas shipped over and kept in a swamp. It was honored with a royal\ndecoration, allowed to wear a string of amber beads over its ear, given\na horsehair hat, a nobleman\u2019s girdle and fed all the turnips it desired\nto eat. In every way it was treated as the king\u2019s favorite.\n\nBut it was all in vain. Money and favor were alike wasted. The petted\ndragon made it rain too often, so that the land was soaked. Then when\ntold not to do this, it grew sulky and neglected its duty. Finally it\nbecame fat and lazy and one night fell asleep when it ought to have\nbeen on guard, for the winds were out on a dance.\n\nSeeing his jailer thus caught napping, the Fire Imp leaped out of its\nvolcano prison, rode quickly on the South Wind to Seoul and in a few\nhours had again swallowed the royal palace. There was nothing seen next\nday except ashes, which the Fire Monster cared no more for than we for\nnutshells when the kernels are eaten up.\n\nWith big tears in their eyes, the king and his wise men met together\nagain to decide on a new scheme to keep off the Fire Imp. They were\nready to drown him, or to see him get eaten up, because he had twice\nswallowed up the palace. They sent the Chinese dragon home and this\ntime, besides the fortune-tellers and the stone-cutters, the\nwell-diggers were invited also. For many days the wise men studied\nmaps, talked of geography, looked at mountains, valleys, and the\nvolcano, and studied air currents. Finally one man, famous for his deep\nlearning about wood and water, forests and rivers, spoke thus:\n\n\u201cIt is evident that the fire has always come from the southwest and up\nthis valley,\u201d pointing to a map.\n\n\u201cTrue, true,\u201d shouted all the wise men.\n\n\u201cWell, right in his path let us dig a big pond, a regular artificial\nlake and very deep, into which the Fire Monster will tumble. This will\nput him out and he can get no further.\u201d\n\n\u201cAgreed, agreed,\u201d shouted the wise men in chorus. \u201cWhy did we not think\nof this before?\u201d\n\nAll the skilful diggers of wells and ditches were summoned to the\ncapital. With shovel and spade they worked for weeks. Then they let in\nwater from the river until the pond was full.\n\nSo everybody in Seoul went to bed thinking that the king\u2019s palace was\nnow safe surely.\n\nBut the Fire Imp, seeing the dragon gone and his opportunity come,\nclimbed out of his volcano and moved out for another meal. This time,\nthe South Wind was busy elsewhere and could not go with him. So he went\nalone, but coming to the pond, tumbled and wet himself so badly that he\nwas chilled and nearly put out when he got to the palace, which was\nonly half burned. So he went home growling and hungry.\n\nAgain the wise men were called and the first thing they did was to\nthank the boss well-digger, who had made the pond. The king summoned\nhim into his presence to confer rank upon him and his children. He was\npresented with four rolls of silk, forty pounds of white ginseng, a\ntiger-skin robe, sixty dried chestnuts and forty-four strings of copper\ncash. Loaded with such Korean wealth and honors, the man fell on his\nhands and knees and thanked His Majesty profusely.\n\nThen they called the master stone-cutter or chief of the guild and\nasked him if he could chisel out the figure of a beast that could eat\nflames and be ugly enough to scare away the Fire Imp.\n\nThe master had long hoped that he would be invited to rear this bit of\nsculpture, but hitherto the king and Court had feared it might cost too\nmuch.\n\nSo the order was given, and out of the heart of the mountains, a mighty\nblock of white granite was loosed and brought to Seoul on rollers,\npushed, pulled, and hoisted by thousands of laborers. Then, hidden\nbehind canvas, to keep the matter secret, lest the Fire Imp should find\nit out, the workmen toiled. Hammers and chisels clinked, until on a\ncertain day the Great Stone Flame Eater was ready to take his permanent\nseat in front of the palace gate, as guardian of the royal buildings\nand treasures.\n\nThe Fire Imp laughed when the South Wind told him of what the Koreans\nin the capital were doing, even though she warned him of the danger of\nhis being eaten up.\n\n\u201cI shall walk out and see for myself anyhow,\u201d said the Fire Imp.\n\nOne night he crept out quietly and moved toward the city. He was nearly\ndrowned in the pond, but plucking up courage, he went on until he was\nnear the king\u2019s dwelling. Hearing the Fire Imp coming, the Great Flame\nEater turned his head and licked his chops in anticipation of\nswallowing the Fire Imp whole, as a toad does a fly.\n\nBut one sight of the hideous stony monster was enough for the Fire Imp.\nThere, before him, on a high pedestal was something never before seen\nin heaven or on earth. It had enormous fire-proof scales like a\nsalamander, with curly hair like asbestos and its mouth was full of big\nfangs. It was altogether hideous enough to give even a Volcano Spirit a\nchill.\n\n\u201cJust think of those jaws snapping on me,\u201d said the Fire Imp to\nhimself, as he looked at them and the fangs. \u201cI do believe that\ncreature is half alligator and half water-tortoise. I had better go\nhome. No dinner this time!\u201d\n\nSo by his freezing glance alone, the Great Flame Eater frightened away\nthe Fire Imp, so that he never came again and the royal palace was not\nonce burned. To-day the ugly brute still keeps watch. You have only to\nlook at him to enjoy this story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER\n\n\nPear Blossom had been the name of a little Korean maid who was suddenly\nleft motherless. When her father, Kang Wa, who was a magistrate high in\noffice, married again, he took for his wife a proud widow whose\ndaughter, born to Kang Wa, was named Violet. Mother and daughter hated\nhousework and made Pear Blossom clean the rice, cook the food and\nattend to the fire in the kitchen. They were hateful in their treatment\nof Pear Blossom, and, besides never speaking a kind word, called her\nPigling, or Little Pig, which made the girl weep often.\n\nIt did no good to complain to her father, for he was always busy. He\nsmoked his yard-long pipe and played checkers hour by hour, apparently\ncaring more about having his great white coat properly starched and\nlustred than for his daughter to be happy. His linen had to be beaten\nwith a laundry club until it glistened like hoar frost, and, except his\nwide-brimmed black horsehair hat, he looked immaculately white when he\nwent out of the house to the Government office.\n\nPoor Pigling had to perform this task of washing, starching and\nglossing, in addition to the kitchen work and the rat-tat-tat of her\nlaundry stick was often heard in the outer room till after midnight,\nwhen her heartless stepsister and mother had long been asleep.\n\nThere was to be a great festival in the city and for many days\npreparations were made in the house to get the father ready in his best\nrobe and hat, and the women in their finery, to go out and see the king\nand the royal procession.\n\nPoor Pigling wanted very much to have a look at the pageant, but the\ncruel stepmother, setting before her a huge straw bag of unhulled rice\nand a big cracked water jar, told her she must husk all the rice, and,\ndrawing water from the well, fill the crock to the brim before she\ndared to go out on the street.\n\nWhat a task to hull with her fingers three bushels of rice and fill up\na leaky vessel! Pigling wept bitterly. How could it ever be done?\n\nWhile she was brooding thus and opening the straw bag to begin\nspreading the rice out on mats, she heard a whir and a rush of wings\nand down came a flock of pigeons. They first lighted on her head and\nshoulders, and then hopping to the floor began diligently, with beak\nand claw, and in a few minutes the rice lay in a heap, clean, white,\nand glistening, while with their pink toes they pulled away the hulls\nand put these in a separate pile.\n\nThen, after a great chattering and cooing, the flock was off and away.\n\nPigling was so amazed at this wonderful work of the birds that she\nscarcely knew how to be thankful enough. But, alas, there was still the\ncracked crock to be filled. Just as she took hold of the bucket to\nbegin there crawled out of the fire hole a sooty black imp, named\nTokgabi.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t cry,\u201d he squeaked out. \u201cI\u2019ll mend the broken part and fill the\nbig jar for you.\u201d Forthwith, he stopped up the crack with clay, and\npouring a dozen buckets of water from the well into the crock, it was\nfilled to brimming and the water spilled over on all sides. Then\nTokgabi the imp bowed and crawled into the flues again, before the\nastonished girl could thank her helper.\n\nSo Pigling had time to dress in her plain but clean clothes that were\nsnow-white. She went off and saw the royal banners and the king\u2019s grand\nprocession of thousands of loyal men.\n\nThe next time, the stepmother and her favorite daughter planned a\npicnic on the mountain. So the refreshments were prepared and Pigling\nhad to work hard in starching the dresses to be worn\u2014jackets, long\nskirts, belts, sashes, and what not, until she nearly dropped with\nfatigue. Yet instead of thanking and cheering her, the cruel stepmother\ntold Pigling she must not go out until she had hoed all the weeds out\nof the garden and pulled up all the grass between the stones of the\nwalk.\n\nAgain the poor girl\u2019s face was wet with tears. She was left at home\nalone, while the others went off in fine clothes, with plenty to eat\nand drink, for a day of merrymaking.\n\nWhile weeping thus, a huge black cow came along and out of its great\nliquid eyes seemed to beam compassion upon the kitchen slave. Then, in\nten mouthfuls, the animal ate up the weeds, and, between its hoof and\nlips, soon made an end of the grass in the stone pathway.\n\nWith her tears dried Pigling followed this wonderful brute out over the\nmeadows into the woods, where she found the most delicious fruit her\neyes ever rested upon. She tasted and enjoyed, feasting to the full and\nthen returned home.\n\nWhen the jealous stepsister heard of the astonishing doings of the\nblack cow, she determined to enjoy a feast in the forest also. So on\nthe next gala-day she stayed home and let the kitchen drudge go to see\nthe royal parade. Pigling could not understand why she was excused,\neven for a few hours, from the pots and kettles, but she was still more\nsurprised by the gift from her stepmother of a rope of cash to spend\nfor dainties. Gratefully thanking the woman, she put on her best\nclothes and was soon on the main street of the city enjoying the gay\nsights and looking at the happy people. There were tight rope dancing,\nmusic with drum and flute by bands of strolling players, tricks by\nconjurers and mountebanks, with mimicking and castanets, posturing by\nthe singing girls and fun of all sorts. Boys peddling honey candy,\nbarley sugar and sweetmeats were out by the dozen. At the eating-house,\nPigling had a good dinner of fried fish, boiled rice with red peppers,\nturnips, dried persimmons, roasted chestnuts and candied orange, and\nfelt as happy as a queen.\n\nThe selfish stepsister had stayed home, not to relieve Pigling of work,\nbut to see the wonderful cow. So, when the black animal appeared and\nfound its friend gone and with nothing to do, it went off into the\nforest.\n\nThe stepsister at once followed in the tracks of the cow but the animal\ntook it into its head to go very fast, and into unpleasant places. Soon\nthe girl found herself in a swamp, wet, miry and full of brambles.\nStill hoping for wonderful fruit, she kept on until she was tired out\nand the cow was no longer to be seen. Then, muddy and bedraggled, she\ntried to go back, but the thorny bushes tore her clothes, spoiled her\nhands and so scratched her face that when at last, nearly dead, she got\nhome, she was in rags and her beauty was gone.\n\nBut Pigling, rosy and round, looked so lovely that a young man from the\nsouth, of good family and at that time visiting the capital, was struck\nwith her beauty. And as he wanted a wife, he immediately sought to find\nout where she lived. Then he secured a go-between who visited both\nfamilies and made all the arrangements for the betrothal and marriage.\n\nGrand was the wedding. The groom, Su-wen, was dressed in white and\nblack silk robes, with a rich horsehair cap and head-dress denoting his\nrank as a Yang-ban, or gentleman. On his breast, crossed by a\nsilver-studded girdle, was a golden square embroidered with flying\ncranes rising above the waves\u2014the symbols of civil office. He was tall,\nhandsome, richly cultured, and quite famous as a writer of verses,\nbesides being well read in the classics.\n\nCharming, indeed, looked Pear Blossom as she was now called again, in\nher robe of brocade, and long undersleeves which extended from her\ninner dress of snow-white silk. Dainty were her red kid shoes curved\nupward at the toes. With a baldric of open-worked silver, a\nhigh-waisted long skirt, with several linings of her inner silk robes\nshowing prettily at the neck, and the silver bridal ring on her finger,\nshe looked as lovely as a princess.\n\nBesides her bridal dower, her father asked Pear Blossom what she\npreferred as a special present. When she told him, he laughed heartily.\nNevertheless he fulfilled her wishes and to this day, in the boudoir of\nPear Blossom, now Mrs. Su-wen, there stands an earthen figure of a\nblack cow moulded and baked from the clay of her home province, while\nthe pigeons like to hover about a pear tree that bursts into bloom\nevery spring time and sheds on the ground a snowy shower of fragrant\npetals.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MIRROR THAT MADE TROUBLE\n\n\nThe city of Seoul lies near the Han river, which flows all the way\nacross Korea from the high mountains to the level sea. To most Korean\npeople, in the old days when no one traveled abroad, Seoul was the\ncenter of the universe.\n\nAll roads in the kingdom led to this wonderful city, in which there\nwere big shops and stores, and gay streets full of lively people in\nrich clothing. The gentlemen in their stiffly starched and glistening\nwhite clothes walked very proudly with their heads up in the air. When\nthey straddled the little Korean ponies, which are not much bigger than\nNewfoundland dogs, it seemed as if elephants were trying to ride on\ndonkeys.\n\nFrom morning to night the avenues were full of traffic and business.\nAll the wonderful things brought by the Arabs from India, and by the\nmerchants from Japan and China, could be bought in the Korean capital.\n\nA thousand bulls loaded with dry grass and fire-wood came through the\ncity gates into Seoul every day. They could be seen passing along, but\nnot much besides legs, tail and horns were visible. At breakfast and\nsupper time clouds of blue smoke rose up from ten thousand low, and\noften underground chimneys, carrying the heat and fire from the\nkitchens, where good things to eat were cooked. The cartloads of bags\nof rice, millet, barley, fruits and vegetables, goodies and cookies,\njars and crockery, seen in the shops, would make a mountain.\n\nPalaces, pagodas, temples and mansions of the nobles and wealthy people\nmade the place in which the king lived very beautiful, while out beyond\nwere the high stone city walls, white or covered with vines.\n\nWhen the sun dipped below the mountains the gates were shut, and after\nthat no one could enter until morning. At every closing and opening of\nthe gates the musicians played lively tunes and the great bell tolled\nout the time of sunrise and sunset. In the band were drums, fifes,\ntrumpets and stringed instruments.\n\nAt night from inside the house and wineshops, one could hear the sounds\nof revelry, music, song, dancing and feasting, which often lasted till\nmorning.\n\nOut on the Great South Mountain, a mighty fire burned and the flames\nshot high up in the air. This was the welcome message that all was\npeaceful throughout the whole kingdom. On hilltop and mountain, from\nthe snowy peaks of the Ever White Mountain to the islands out in the\nSouthern Sea, and from the east to the west coast, these signal fires\nblaze. Flame answering flame made a telegraph announcing that all was\nwell.\n\nBut at nine o\u2019clock Seoul outdoors was a woman\u2019s city. All boys and men\nmust be off the streets. Any male person caught by the police would be\ntaken to the magistrate\u2019s office and there receive a severe beating\nwith wooden paddles by the public spankers. Then the women and grown-up\ngirls, old and young, went outdoors, breathed the air, took their\nwalks, made their visits, and had a delightful time with play and chat\nand gossip. But by midnight every one must be indoors.\n\nIt was no wonder then that in the country the farmers and the village\nfolk thought that Seoul, the capital, was the most splendid city on\nearth. If they ever heard of London and Paris and New York, they\nsupposed that these places on the map were only villages. How was it\npossible that any city could equal or surpass Seoul? Why, the very idea\nwas nonsense!\n\nIn every hamlet even the children hoped some day to see the city. Often\nthey dreamed of riding through the air on a dragon\u2019s back in order to\nget there. It was thought that anything which a mortal man or even the\ninsatiable Tokgabi should require, could be bought in Seoul.\n\nNow in a village up north, which in English we should call\nCucumberville, lived a miller, Mr. Kim and his wife Cho. The man had\nworked hard for many years and heaped up piles of iron and brass cash,\nwhich he kept hidden under a rafter beneath the roof. He had long\nintended to see the royal city, and his wife encouraged him, for she\nwanted a new dress, and a comb and a pair of shoes, such as city people\nwear. His daughters said they would like to have girdles,\nermine-trimmed slippers and silver hair pins. Kim felt that he must\nsurely go, to please both himself and his family.\n\nSo one fine May morning he started off to walk to Seoul and see the\nsights. His wife and daughters, bowing down with their faces to the\npaper carpet, begged him to bring them the pretty things they talked\nabout so much, and also whatever might please himself.\n\nHis faithful spouse bade him beware of thieves and robbers and not to\nlet his money lie around loose in the inns by the way. When in Seoul he\nmust not go into the wineshops, or to see the dancing girls called\nge-sang (or geisha), or to spend his cash foolishly. There were many\nwicked men about and she had heard that beside the polite people there\nwere boors even in the capital. This she thought must surely be the\nfact, for there was a proverb that said so.\n\nOn his part Kim cautioned his wife, since it was still chilly weather,\nto keep the kitchen fires burning, so as to have the house warm and not\nlet the girls take cold. She must beware also of robbers. These bad men\nhad the habit of coming after midnight, when the fire was out, and of\nquietly loosening the stones of the foundations under the floor and\ngetting inside, and also into the rooms through the flues. The house\nmust be well locked up and the door barricaded at night, so that no\nprowling leopard or tiger roaming around should get in. If she heard\nany scratching or clawing on the roof, she was to strike the gong. This\nwould alarm the villagers, and then the men would rush out with torches\nand drive off the beasts of prey. If she should hear the pigs squealing\nout in the pen, she must sound the alarm for the tigers loved Korean\npork even more than Korean people.\n\nNow Kim was a first-rate fellow. When at home he was pretty sharp at a\nbargain while buying beans, millet or rice, and was skilful in grinding\nbarley or chopping up straw for the donkeys. But when he was once\ninside the walls of the big city, one would think \u201che carried his head\nunder his armpits,\u201d as the Koreans say.\n\nFor amid so many strange sights and sounds he was dazed. Like a great\ngawk he stood on the main street, with his mouth open. As the crowds\nwent by, he wondered where all the people came from, and how they all\ngot a living.\n\nHe found the saying true that \u201cThere are rude people, even in Seoul,\u201d\nfor one fellow shouted at him asking him whether he intended to swallow\nthe moon. Some of the boys laughed at him and one said his mouth was\nlike a bird box, and something might fly in.\n\nKim looked at many things in the shops, but when he asked how much they\ncost he nearly fainted. He was truly scared at the price, and walked\non. However, he bought some pretty things for his wife and daughters,\nsuch as a fan, a roll of silk for a dress, a box of hairpins, some\namber beads, and a silver ring, so that when his oldest daughter, who\nwas soon to marry, became a bride, she would have everything ready.\n\nWhile in the silk shop the clerk who sold him the goods saw that Kim\nwas from the country and thought he would have a little fun. So he told\nKim about the fairies, and pointed out a shop across the way. There, if\nhe looked at the round thing which the shop man would gladly show him,\nhe would see and feel as he never felt or saw before.\n\nAt once Kim went across the street and over to the shop, where they\nmade metal things, bright, shining, polished and silvery. There he\nstood in front of a round thing like the moon. In it was a man\u2019s face.\nIt was the face of some one he thought he knew. It was a man about his\nown age he fancied, yet he could not tell just who it was or call him\nby name, but he was sure he had seen the person before. When he turned\naround suddenly, hoping to surprise a friend, and perhaps a neighbor,\nfrom his home town, there was nobody near. He looked again. There it\nwas! Had his friend hid himself and then come back?\n\nWhen Kim dodged he lost sight of the face, but when standing in front\nof this round thing, there was the same man again in the mirror, for\nthat is what the shining metal was.\n\nWhen Kim laughed the fellow laughed too. When he made a wry face or\ngrimaces, the other person, whoever he was, did the same. No matter how\nquickly Kim might turn around to catch him, he was gone.\n\nNow Kim had never before seen a mirror and did not know what it might\nbe. Yet thinking it was almost like fairy magic, he bought the metal\ndisc and took it back with him.\n\nWhen he arrived home he must first of all unpack the boxes containing\nthe pretty things for the women of his family, for the girls were\nimpatient to see what their father had brought them.\n\nThey were so absorbed in their gifts that they did not notice what Mr.\nKim had bought for himself. So he laid the case containing the mirror\non the table and put some other purchases away in the big cabinet,\ninlaid with mother-of-pearl, that stood in the best room. Then he went\nout to look after his mill, and the pigs, the donkey, and the bull.\n\nNo sooner had the girls opened the mirror case, than terrible things\nhappened. The mother, who was behind the daughter, saw the face of a\nyoung woman and was startled at beholding a stranger, as she thought,\nin her house. Instantly she broke out in a fit of jealous passion.\n\n\u201cYour father has brought home another woman, a ge-sang, from Seoul, to\ntake my place. What does he mean?\u201d\n\nAt the same time the daughter, seeing a face in the polished metal,\ncried out, \u201cNo mother, we won\u2019t have any strange woman in your place.\nBesides she\u2019s too young and will be a tyrant to us.\u201d\n\nHearing the loud voices and crying, the grandmother hobbled in and\nasked what was the matter.\n\n\u201cLook, see for yourself, what our daddy has brought home to us to make\nus miserable.\u201d\n\nSeeing the mirror, Granny looked into it for a moment. Then she too\nburst into a passion, and cried out, \u201cI won\u2019t have this old woman in\nour house. It\u2019s enough for my son to support me and his family. Oh, why\ndid he go to Seoul?\u201d\n\nBy this time there was such a racket with four women, young,\nmiddle-aged, and old, crying so lustily, that each one quickly used up\nthree paper handkerchiefs apiece, before they could dry their tears.\n\nWhile still crying out, \u201cugo, ugo!\u201d very loudly, grandfather came in,\nshaking his stick and ordering them to be quiet. Then, looking at their\nstreaming faces and dropping tears, he demanded to know the cause of\nthe trouble.\n\n\u201cSee for yourself,\u201d said his wife. Then she handed him the metal\ntrouble-maker, such as had never before been seen in the village.\n\nAt once the old man turned almost purple with rage.\n\n\u201cWhat,\u201d cried he in his cracked voice, \u201cis my son so unfilial as to\nbring another old man into the house? How can he support two fathers?\nWhere will he get the kimchi and millet for the old fellow to eat?\u201d\nThen he threw the mirror into its box and slammed down the lid tight.\n\nAll this time while jealousy was eating up these angry people and\nthreatening to disrupt the family, the noise increased so greatly, that\nthe husband left his pigs and his mill, and rushed in to see what was\nthe matter.\n\nAt once his wife, who was a very strong woman, flew at him, and seizing\nhis topknot, pulled him and dragged him over the floor and outdoors,\nand along into the street, never stopping till she reached the house of\nthe judge to tell her troubles. There she made out a terrible story.\n\nOnce in the presence of the great man who wore a mighty hat and had a\nstring of amber beads hung over his ear, she told the story of what her\nhusband had brought from Seoul, to destroy the peace of his family.\nSurely, he meant to go back to the capital and have a young wife! In\nher anger her tongue never stopped a moment.\n\nShe charged her husband with all the crimes known in the codes. Yet all\nthat she could prove against him was that he had brought something\nround, made of metal, into the house. She assured the judge that it was\nas full of evil magic as Tokgabi and all his imps.\n\nNow the other members of the family joined in accusation of the miller.\nBesides supporting the wife\u2019s story, they all declared that it was true\nin every detail; because the five witnesses all agreed in their story.\n\nWhen the flood of talk had subsided somewhat, the judge, who meanwhile\nhad kept on smoking a brass-bowled pipe, the stem of which was a yard\nlong, while the bowl was only as big as a chestnut, asked,\n\n\u201cIn what form did you say this evil magic came?\u201d\n\nAt this, the miller\u2019s old father produced the box, opened it, and\nhanded the metal mirror to the judge, who had never before seen\nanything like it. In fact, he had never been out of his district except\nonce, when he went to the examinations, years before, in Seoul. Even\nthen he was so much with his fellow students and so long shut up in his\nlittle cell writing out his essays that he saw hardly anything of the\ncity.\n\nWhen he held up the mirror before his eyes he suddenly became like a\ndemon in his rage, and behaved just like the other people in the\ncourt-room.\n\nOn the face of the round thing which he held in his hand he saw a man\nin official robes, such as only men of eminence wear. He had on his\nhead a high round hat, like those which only magistrates ever put on,\nwhile on his right ear hung a string of twenty-eight big round amber\nbeads.\n\nWhen he held the mirror down in front of him he discerned also the\nembroidered breastpiece, and the little silver stork, that served to\nhold together the folds of a judge\u2019s coat of office, while around his\nwaist was a decorated girdle.\n\nAll this made him almost choke with anger, at the idea that another\nmagistrate should come into the village of Cucumberville, to take his\nplace.\n\nWhat should he himself do for a salary? If he lost his position how\nwould he support his old parents and his twenty-five poor relations? He\nsaw himself a pauper in his old age.\n\nSpeechless with rage there was silence in the court-room for at least\nhalf a minute. Even the women\u2019s tongues did not wag. All looked at each\nother to see what would come next.\n\nBut the peace lasted no longer than thirty seconds, for the storm broke\nout again in full force when the jealous wife seized her husband by his\ntopknot to drag him home. She feared that the magistrate was himself so\nangry and jealous, that he might adjourn the court.\n\nJust when the hullaballoo was at its height, a messenger rushed into\nthe court-room, to announce that the royal inspector direct from the\nking was on his travels of observation in the province. Within five\nminutes he would be at the gate of the court house.\n\nInstantly the jealous wife let go her husband\u2019s topknot. The magistrate\ncalled for order and posted his under officers in their places,\naccording to the etiquette of welcoming the king\u2019s agents. Then the\nmagistrate adjusting his hat and topknot which had been badly tumbled\nin his passion went out to greet his worship, the Royal Inspector.\nSalutations over, he waved his hand to his superior to take to the\nchief seat of honor.\n\nAs soon as all formalities were over, the high officer inquired into\nthe cause of the troubles and into the merits of the case.\n\nThe local magistrate put the mirror on a silken cushion and handed both\nto his highness, the inspector, saying:\n\n\u201cPlease, your worship, it is this that has turned us all into devils of\njealousy. What is it?\u201d\n\nThen this gentleman from the capital, who was every day accustomed to\nthe comforts and conveniences of the great city and the splendor of the\npalace, explained what a mirror was. He gave them all a mild scolding\nfor their folly and dismissed them, telling them that whenever he or\nshe felt angry, or jealous, to go out and pull the tops off five\nturnips; or, to drink slowly a cup of rice water before speaking an\nangry word.\n\nThereupon, the miller\u2019s wife fell on her face and begged pardon of her\nhusband. Then, all the family, young and old, while walking home,\nlaughed heartily at their mistakes.\n\nWhen a Korean begins to laugh, it is sometimes hard for him to stop;\nbut after half an hour, all was quiet again. After that, nearly every\none who could afford it bought a mirror. All the girls in the village,\nsooner or later, possessed one.\n\nThey used to look into its face so often to see their own, that the\noiled-paper carpet fronting the mirror was, in many houses, soon worn\nout.\n\nIn Seoul, the mirror-makers wondered what had happened in\nCucumberville, the village, so long famous only for its cucumbers, but\nthey slapped their thighs for joy and grew rich.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOLD TIMBER TOP\n\n\nThe fairies in the Korean province of Kang Wen, which means River\nMeadow, were having great fun, when one of their number told how they\nplayed a trick on an ox-driver whom they called Old Timber Top. How he\ngot such a strange name this story will tell.\n\nThis driver was a rich and stingy fellow who had made a fortune in\nlumber. He used to buy up all the trees he could. Then he would have\nthem cut down and sawed up into logs and boards. His men would haul\nthem away in their rough carts, drawn by stout bulls, to his lumber\nyard. In winter time sleds were used, but whether it was the season of\nsnow and ice, or of tree blossoms and flowers, the animal used to draw\nsleds or carts was always a bull.\n\nFor in Korea, horses or donkeys do not know how to pull anything. The\nponies and donkeys are too small. Not being used to the work, if\nharnessed they would kick the wagon all to pieces.\n\nThey can carry loads on their backs, but the bulls can do this also, so\nthe creature with horns is considered to be the most valuable of beasts\nof burden. Besides, he fills the purse and makes good dinners when his\nowner is through with him.\n\nYou can see these patient carriers loaded with brushwood or sticks\npiled so high they seem to be carrying small mountains of twigs, grass\nand leaves for kindlings, or with heavy logs of wood for fuel. Yet when\nthe bull is very young, a mere baby, he has a happier time than a colt\nor little donkey, for he lives in the house and is the children\u2019s pet.\n\nOld Timber Top sold his logs and boards at such high prices that the\npoor suffered. This was because they were cold and could not afford to\npay so many strings of cash for fuel. The people used to say that the\nold fellow would skin a mosquito for his hide and tallow. So sometimes\nthey gave him the nickname of Skin-flay.\n\nNot many of the villagers were able to buy planks of wood thick and\nheavy and strong enough to keep their pigs from the tigers, which came\ndown from the mountains and prowled about at night in the villages.\nThese long-haired and black-striped beasts got to be so fond of pork,\nthat even in the snow they would, without fearing the cold or the guns\nof the hunters, claw up the tops of the pens and get down among the\nsquealing prey. They might get a baby pig at once or perhaps drag out\nand carry off enough of a big pork to feed their cubs for a week. All\nthe stables and cow-houses had to be made very strong, for the tigers,\nwhen they had gone a good while without food, seemed to be hungry\nenough to eat a horse with all his harness on, and even a grown-up cow\nor ox. Yet as a rule, no tiger cared to taste either beef or horse\nmeat, if he could get young pork or veal.\n\nOld Timber Top was not satisfied to make money at his lumber yard only.\nIt is the custom in Korea to plant the most beautiful trees around\ntombs or in the cemeteries. When this skin-flint heard of a family\nwhich had become so poor that they must needs sell the splendid trees\nwhich had been planted around their ancestors\u2019 graves he sent his\nagents to buy the timber. These fellows would load up a horse with long\nropes, of copper and iron cash, coins that had a square hole in the\nmiddle and were strung together with twine made of twisted straw. It\nwas a heavy horse load to carry twenty dollars\u2019 worth of coin. Arrived\non the spot, after beating the owner down to the lowest price possible,\nOld Timber Top\u2019s men would go out, chop down and saw up the grand\ntrees, leaving only the sawdust on the graves, while the people wept to\nlose what they loved.\n\nIn this way the landscape was spoiled and this made many villagers very\nangry at such a man, for the Koreans love natural scenery and almost\nworship fine trees, which had made the country beautiful for centuries.\n\nBut what cared Old Timber Top, provided he could pile up his strings of\ncash and jingle his silver?\n\nIn time, this hard old fellow could think of nothing else but how to\nget richer out of the wants and sufferings of other people. The\nwealthier he became, the more he wanted. Yet he did not get any\nhappier. Nobody loved him, while many hated him.\n\nAt last he thought he would make a trip to Seoul, the great capital\ncity, which every Korean hopes to see sometime. There he expected to\nreceive honor and appointment to rank and office. Timber Top had a\nrelative who was high in the king\u2019s service, who, he thought, would\nassist him; for all Koreans are kind and helpful to each other,\nespecially when they are related.\n\nTo be an officer Timber Top knew would permit him, even to wear a\ngorgeously shining mandarin\u2019s hat with wide flaps or wings on it and a\nlong white silk coat with a big square on the breast of velvet or\nsatin, embroidered with storks or dragons, clouds and waves. When he\nwent out on the streets he could strut about, as if he were the lord of\nthe universe; for he would then wear a hat so high and with such a\nround wide brim, that he would not dare to go out during a high wind,\nfor fear of being blown away, like a ship in a tempest. In such a\ncostume he would be saluted by servants and the common people, who\nwould bow down before him, because they would think him a great man.\n\nBut how could he win such a position and gain the glory of it?\n\nHe was not a scholar, learned in books, or in law, or a doctor of\nmedicine. Not being a soldier, either, he knew nothing of war. He could\nnot ride on a monocycle, as a general did, drawn or pushed by four men\nand dressed in a long red coat studded all over with shining metal with\na brass helmet on his head, on the top of which was a little dragon. He\nfeared, even if he were appointed, he might fall off the one-wheeled\nvehicle and show what a fool he was.\n\nNevertheless this old fellow was so vain and full of conceit that he\nfollowed what was once the common custom in Korea. He took his journey\nto Seoul, leaving his family behind him to live on the cheapest kind of\nkimchi, with turnips and millet.\n\nNow the Koreans are all famous for giving welcome and showing\nhospitality to their poor relations, and often they do this even to\ntramps and lazy people. When a man becomes rich or holds a high office,\nhe usually has around him many hangers on. Some, we should even say,\nwere loafers.\n\nSo on arriving in Seoul, Old Timber Top took up his quarters in one\npart of his relative\u2019s big house. There he lived a long time and was\ntreated decently, for he always was saying soft things and making\nflattering speeches to his host. In fact, he bowed down like a slave\nwhen in presence of his august master. Yet, in truth, he was despised\neven by the servants and work people.\n\nIn order not to wear his welcome entirely out he had to make from time\nto time a handsome present to his patron. This steadily reduced both\nhis income and his fortune, and while these were shrinking his family\nat home suffered, so that, by and by, he received notice by letter that\nhis business had dried up and soon no more money could be sent to him\nin Seoul. While he lingered news from home grew worse and worse. His\nwife was obliged to sell their house to pay debts. The next item was\nthat she and her daughter were living in a wretched shanty at the end\nof the village and were no longer in society.\n\nAll this time those in Seoul who knew that the foolish fellow was as\nambitious as ever to wear the fine white clothes of a scholar, or the\ngay colors of a soldier, declared that Old Timber Top had no brains.\nThey even jested about a pumpkin set on shoulders, or they laughed when\nthey declared that the wood, which he had sold so long, had gone to his\nhead. They debated in the wine shops whether, if his skull were opened,\npumpkin seeds or timber would be found inside of it.\n\nSo they, also, called him \u201cOld Timber Top,\u201d meaning that inside his\nskull was a wooden head and no better than that of an idol carved out\nof persimmon wood, such as were so plentiful in the Buddhist temples.\nOthers declared that he had a real head of bone and brains, but \u201che\ncarried it under his arm pits,\u201d as the saying was.\n\nWhen the fairies heard all this, they unanimously resolved to reform\nthe old fellow, even if they had to make an ox of him.\n\nTimber Top, now poor and bankrupt, knew he must leave Seoul and go home\nand work for a living. When he made his final call on his rich Seoul\nrelative and told him he must, to his great regret, take his leave and\ngo back to his native village, he was not well received. Being too poor\nto buy a present to give to his host, on whose bounty he had lived so\nlong, he was answered coldly and told to go and do as he liked.\n\nAnd this, after years of fawning and gift-making! Not a word of thanks\nor appreciation! Poor Timber Top was down in the mouth and his heart\nwas cold in his bosom. He knocked on his head with his fists, to find\nout whether, after all, it had really turned into timber.\n\nOn his way back, a big storm came on and when he came to a village inn,\ncold, wet and hungry, he begged for shelter over night. The woman who\nkept it was the wife of a butcher, who was then away from home. This\nwas an awful blow to Timber Top\u2019s pride, for butchers were held to be\nthe lowest of people, and they were not even allowed to wear hats, like\nthe rest of the men in Korea.\n\nThe woman was kind to the traveler. She gave him a hot supper and let\nhim sleep in that room of the house which had the best stone floor,\nunder which the flues from the kitchen fire ran. So he warmed himself\nand baked his clothes, which were sopping wet, until they were dry. He\nwas so tired that he kept on sleeping till very late next morning, and\nnearly to the noon hour. He was altogether so comfortable that to him\nit seemed as if he were a great man in the capital, thus to receive\nsuch kind treatment.\n\nWaking up from one of his naps, he heard what he thought was the big\nbutcher, who had come home, asking of his wife in a gruff tone of\nvoice, \u201cWhere is that ox? I must sell him this morning, for it is\nmarket day,\u201d he said.\n\nIn less than a minute more, the man and his wife entered the room with\nfour sticks which the fairies had put there, a halter, and a rope, made\nof twisted rice straw, besides a thick iron ring, such as they put into\nbulls\u2019 noses, to make them obey their masters. Throwing down the iron\nring and rope on the floor, in a trice they had thrust the stick under\nOld Timber Top\u2019s back. In a moment more, he felt horns growing out of\nhis head, and his lips becoming thick as sausages. His mouth was as\nwide as a saucer and had big teeth growing on the upper jaw. A tail\nsprouted at his other end and the four sticks became four legs.\n\nBefore he could quite understand just what was going on, or what the\nmatter could be, Old Timber Top was standing on four legs and the\nbutcher was slipping the ring through his nose. Oh how it did hurt!\n\nIt was an awkward job to get the animal out of the room and through the\nnarrow door, and some of the paper on the walls and the furniture\nsuffered. But finally when out in the open air the bull, that was no\nother than what had been the man Timber Top, went quietly along to the\nmarket place. Any attempt to pull his head away, or to stop or run off,\nor in any way to misbehave, hurt his nose so dreadfully, that he\nquickly quit. The butcher needed to give only a slight jerk of the rope\nwhen the bull changed his gait and was as quiet as a lamb, even though\nas an animal he was big enough to gore the man and toss him on its\nhorns, or crush him by trampling on him with his hoofs, if once he got\nangry.\n\nOne would have supposed that Timber Top would be a fighting bull, but\nno! In the market place he stood patiently and quietly for hours,\nhardly even stamping, when the flies began to bite.\n\n\u201cOh that I had been as diligent and kept on at my honest occupation in\nmy native village, as that fly!\u201d mused the bull, that still had a man\u2019s\nmemory.\n\nAt last there came a man with money to buy. He was a drover, who\nunloaded his pony and paid down many strings, or about twenty pounds,\nof copper and iron cash. The owner put the halter in the buyer\u2019s hand,\nand the new master then led off Timber Top to be sold to a butcher who\nlived up in his home town in the north. This fellow intended first to\nfatten the animal and then turn him into steaks and stewing meat.\n\nBut on his way the new owner thought that, because he had made a good\nbargain, he must stop at a wine shop and have a drink. So he tied\nTimber Top\u2019s nose with the rope to the low wall, which enclosed a\nturnip field, and went inside the shop.\n\nBut while the drover\u2019s wine went in his wits went out, and he fell\nasleep and stayed in the shop a long time. In fact, it was as the old\nsong said:\n\n\n           \u201cFirst the man takes a dram,\n            Then the dram takes another dram;\n            Then the dram takes the man.\u201d\n\n\nMeanwhile Timber Top looked over the low wall, and, yielding to\ntemptation, pulled up with his teeth some of the plants by the roots,\nfirst chewing the green leaves and then grinding the turnips and\nswallowing them.\n\nPresto! The horns drew in and shrivelled up. The ring dropped out of\nhis nose and fell with a crash on the stones of the village path. His\ntwo forelegs turned into arms, the hair and hoofs became human legs and\nOld Timber Top was a man, and himself once again. To make sure of it he\nfelt himself all over; pulled his own nose, felt around his back to see\nif he had a tail, and rubbed his head for horns. None there! He looked\ndown and found he had only two legs. Then he swung his arms with\ndelight, at being once more a man.\n\n\u201cWell named, Turn-up thou,\u201d he mused, \u201cthou green plant with a\nmustard-like taste. Thou hast turned me inside out. Or, have the\nfairies been busy?\u201d\n\nHe had hardly got these ideas through his half wooden head, that he was\non two legs and a man once more and could think like one, than he\nstarted on the road home. Just then the drover rushed out of the wine\nshop and accosted him, saying:\n\n\u201cHave you seen a stray bull anywhere near this place?\u201d\n\nOf course Timber Top using fine language, like a yang ban, said there\nwas no bull in the neighborhood that he could see or knew of, and he\nhad heard none bellowing. Then he gave the drover a look of contempt\nfor being so stupid, and for asking of him, a gentleman, so foolish a\nquestion.\n\nYet after he was out of sight of the drover he slapped his thighs, as\nKoreans do when they are amused at their own smartness, and went on\njoyfully. He kept on repeating to himself, \u201csticks and turnips, turnips\nand sticks.\u201d\n\nThen a big idea struck him, as if it were a tap on a wooden drum, such\nas one sees in Buddhist temples. It hit his brain so hard and so\nswelled his head, that his big Korean hat nearly toppled off.\nImmediately he put this idea into action.\n\nHe returned hastily to the inn and into the room in which he had been\nturned into a bull and stole the butcher\u2019s four fairy sticks, which\nstood in a corner, then he hied at once over the roads towards the\ncapital.\n\nReaching Seoul, he went to the house of his rich relative, where he had\nwaited ten years for the fortune and the favor which did not come.\nGoing into his host\u2019s bedroom, he tapped the high lord of the house\nwith the fairy sticks, not hard, but only lightly.\n\nForthwith the man\u2019s head became horns at the top, with muzzle of thick\nlips in front. His hands turned into front hoofs and his legs into the\nhind quarters of a bull. Yet he was not entirely an ox, but only half\nanimal and half man.\n\nOld Timber Top stopped tapping and then went away, to await events,\nleaving the creature half man and half ox. He knew that soon he would\nbe called in.\n\nWhen the family of wife, many sons, several daughters, servants,\nretainers, hangers-on, and what not, saw their master half man and half\nox, with horns and hoofs, they were distracted. Each one had his own\nnotion of how to get him back into human form and like his former self.\nEach one ran all over town and into the adjoining villages to get and\ncall in the mudangs.\n\nThese mudangs were the people, mostly women, whose business it was to\ndrive out the imps and bad fairies, such as had, in this case, done the\nmischief. The kitchen maids stoutly declared that Tokgabi had wrought\nthe change upon their master. They felt quite sure of it; but the men\nthought that the gods of the mountains were punishing him for his sins.\nOn the other hand, the mudang woman said she would find out and get him\nback into his human skin, if they paid her enough money.\n\nWith drums and dancing and songs, screams, yells, and every sort of\nnoise, the mudangs kept up such a terrible racket that it almost\ndeafened the family. There were several of them called in, and they\nknew that they would all be well paid.\n\nMeanwhile the doctors also kept on with their awful medicines, besides\nrubbing, pounding, blowing, and sticking needles into the bull and\nburning moxa, or little balls of cottony mugwort, on its hide.\n\nYet not a hoof or horn, not even a hair changed.\n\nThe mudangs declared that the imps had got inside the man and they must\nget them out. One fellow carried a big bottle to trap the imps and cork\nthem in. Another insisted that they would have to use scissors and snip\nthe skin in about a hundred places, thus making small holes to let the\nevil creatures out. Then they must bottle them up, lest they should get\nout and overrun the house and infest the whole town.\n\nThere seemed not so many chances of getting well as \u201cone hair among\nnine oxen\u201d; but the wife pleaded that they would put off using the\nscissors until all other means had failed. She did not want to see her\ndear husband\u2019s skin made into a colander, or sieve, if it could be\nhelped.\n\nAt this point, when the din and the despair were worst and had come to\na climax, Old Timber Top appeared. As some of the family had collapsed\nand lay helpless on the floor, and as all were too tired to ask\nquestions, they at once made way for him. After looking at the patient\nwith a face as wise as an owl\u2019s, Old Timber Top solemnly announced that\nonly one thing could save him and that was a rare and wonderful drug,\nof which only he knew the secret, but which he could speedily procure.\nOf course the wife, sons and daughters instantly promised to give up\ntheir all, to see their husband and father himself again.\n\nSo while Timber Top went out to get the famous medicine, they all fell\nasleep, tired out, while the ox-man lay over on his side resting his\nhorns and hoofs on the floor bed; for in Korea they do not have\nbedsteads, that is, beds raised up from the floor.\n\nAs for Old Timber Top, when once out on the street, he immediately\nbegan saying to himself, over and over again, \u201cTurnips and sticks,\nsticks and turnips.\u201d\n\nGoing to a vegetable shop, he bought a fine large turnip, or\nturnip-radish, of the kind that grows in Korea, silvery white and about\nfour feet long. He first peeled, then sliced, and finally pounded it\ninto a sauce very fine. Then entering the house in triumph, he woke up\nthe doctors, kicked the servants awake, and announced that the potent\ndrug would soon restore their master. He solemnly bade them all watch\nand see him do it.\n\nPulling and hauling all together, five or six fellows were able to get\nthe man-bull on his two hoofs and two feet and then Timber Top put a\nspoonful of the sauce on the big tongue.\n\nAt once a most marvellous change took place!\n\nThe horns shortened until they disappeared, the lips thinned, the mouth\nbecame smaller. Hoofs, hair, and hide departed into empty air. In the\nwagging of a dog\u2019s tail, the mighty man of the house had become himself\nagain.\n\nAll the doctors, jugglers, and mudangs packed up their imp-bottles and\nmedicines, and with their drums, flutes, bags, boxes and wares slunk\naway, while the family loaded Old Timber Top with grateful thanks and\ncompliments.\n\nAs for the master, he declared Timber Top the greatest physician the\nworld ever knew. He invited him to make the house his permanent home\nand showered upon him many gifts, with plenty to eat, and white clothes\nstarched as white as snow. The hats with which he presented Timber Top\nwere so big around and had a brim so wide, that he used them when\ncovered with oiled paper covers as umbrellas in rainy weather, but he\nnever went out doors when the wind was blowing, for fear he would be\nwhirled down the street. Besides this, he feared there was still much\nwood in his head, which might turn into a top and spin round, if he\nwere not careful.\n\nOld Timber Top set up a medicine office, practiced among the nobility\nand became physician to the king. When he visited the palace, he used a\nred visiting card, a foot long. He had a plastron, or square of velvet\nembroidery on his breast. He wore a string of amber beads as big as\nwalnuts over his ears. He soon became fat with a double chin and plump\nfingers, showing that he reeked with prosperity. He lived to a good old\nage, his family were made comfortable, his sons and daughters married\nwell, and he had seventeen grandchildren before he died.\n\nYet all the time, the fairies claimed that they did it all. They made\nthe sticks work one way, and the turnips another, and they still play\ntheir tricks on the Koreans, especially those with more or less wood in\ntheir heads.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSIR ONE LONG BODY AND MADAM THOUSAND FEET\n\n\nIn the land of Morning Radiance, where the family names have only one\nsyllable, such as Kim, Yi, Pil, Wun, Hap, etc., they wear shoes, but\nthese are not made of black leather. The people neither stand up on\nwooden clogs as in Japan, nor case their feet in straight soled\ngaiters, without heels, as in China. The gentlemen put on white socks\nwith tough hide soles, and the ladies don dainty slippers with the\npointed toes turned up. Common folks\u2019 sandals are made chiefly of straw\nand twine and it takes a good deal of cordage to complete a pair.\n\nNow there once lived under an old stone below a persimmon tree a fair\nyoung creature named Miss Thousand Feet. She wore lead-colored clothes\nand had so many toes to take care of that any one who tried to count\nthem soon got tired; so he stopped and called the whole amount a\nthousand, which was a number as round as herself. She was as proud of\neach one of her many little feet as a Chinese lady, who has only two of\nthem. Miss Thousand Feet was very modest, however, and if any one\nstepped on her toes, or touched her, she curled up, first into a ring\nand then into a ball, so that men, by a pun on her family name, called\nher \u201ca pill millipede,\u201d for she belonged to the Pil family, one of the\nmost famous in all Korea.\n\nMiss Thousand Feet was very happy living under a damp stone in the cool\nearth and she played a good deal. But by and by, when she grew up, her\nparents told her it was time for her to get married. So they looked\naround, to see if any gentleman in the whole creation was worthy of\nher, not only to make a suitable husband, but also a good match.\n\nNow in another village lived a rich, fat, young and promising male\ncreature, named Mr. Long Body, of the Wum family. His business was to\neat his way through the ground, and pile up little curled heaps of mud\non the surface, and at this work he was kept very busy. He had to look\nout for the birds, for they enjoyed eating folks like him, he was so\nsoft and sweet. Constant exercise in moving through the ground kept his\nbody shining, so that altogether, as earthworms go, he was quite\nhandsome and considered a good catch for Miss Thousand Feet.\nFurthermore, as he had no feet and she had so many, while his body was\nlong and hers quite short, it was supposed that one would make up where\nthe other lacked and that both would be happy together as husband and\nwife.\n\nMr. Long Body, when he heard of the charms of Miss Thousand Feet, was\nof the same opinion. All his friends were pairing off, the males\nbringing home their brides to their fathers\u2019 houses and setting up\nhousekeeping. As he had come of age, he also determined to marry.\n\nSo he sent letters and opened the business, according to Korean\netiquette, through a \u201cgo-between,\u201d as the lady who arranges marriages\nis called. This person goes to see each of the two families, praising\nto one the beauty and graces of the promised bride and to the other the\nstrength and wealth of the future husband. Indeed, she gives both of\nthem a very good character. Finally the \u201csix proprieties,\u201d or \u201chalf\ndozen rules,\u201d had been completed and the engagement of Mr. Wum and Miss\nPil was announced.\n\nWhat a clatter of gossip was at once heard in both villages! No one\never thought that such a handsome fellow as Mr. Long Body Wum would\never marry into the Pil family. Some jealous folks hinted that Mr. Long\nBody, if he took a wife with a thousand feet, would never be able to\npay his shoemaker. On the other hand, so long as his bride would be\ncontent with plain twine shoes all might go well; but for extra\noccasions, or if his wife were extravagant and wanted lady\u2019s turned up\nhouse foot-gear made of red morocco such as only the rich folks\nwear,\u2014well there would be trouble in the household. How could he keep\nher in shoes? Other persons, however, who knew that the Pils were\nfamous people, wondered how Mr. Wum ever managed to get such a prize as\nMiss Pil.\n\nIn the other village, the tongues of the gossips ran on in much the\nsame way. What did she see to admire in that fellow without legs? When\nthe honeymoon would be over and it came to making gentleman\u2019s clothes\nfor her husband, had she any skill with the needle? Could she make a\nlong coat and one trouser leg big enough to fit him? And think of the\nmany days of work necessary to cut and sew the garment, to say nothing\nof weary hours to be spent in washing, starching and giving a gloss to\nsuch clothes. The idea! Why, she would have to be nothing but a slave.\n\nAs her husband\u2019s semptress, tailor, and laundress she would get no\nrest. Think of washing, starching, and beating to a fine gloss the\none-legged trousers, which Mr. Wum would often have to change; for he\nlived in the dirt!\n\nNow, Mr. Long Body Wum was so busy with his work of excavating the\nground that he had no time to pay attention to the village\nchatterboxes. Miss Pil, however, couldn\u2019t help hearing what the women\nand others said about her, and especially the talk concerning the\nterribly hard duties that awaited her if she took a husband. While Mr.\nWum kept digging at the tunnel three yards long, which he was\nexcavating underground, so as to save up and be ready for his wedding,\nMiss Pil brooded over what the gossips talked about and over those\nawfully long coats and one-legged trousers she would be obliged to sit\nup at nights to make, wash, starch and gloss. Already she imagined her\narms tired in anticipation of starching and beating on the Korean\nlustre, without which no gentleman in the Land of Morning Calm ever\ngoes outdoors. If his coat didn\u2019t have that fashionable shine which\nlong beating gives, the women would notice it immediately and pretty\nsoon the men also.\n\nMiss Pil\u2019s broodings night and day over the matter did not help\naffairs, and finally wore upon her nerves. She refused to prepare her\nown trousseau, and despite all her friends told her in praise of Mr.\nLong Body Wum, she decided to write a letter to him, telling him that\non account of his long trunk without limbs, and the great labor\nnecessary to make him proper clothing and of starching and glossing it,\nto say nothing of keeping it in order, she felt unable to hold to the\nmarriage engagement and must break it off.\n\nBut before she had dropped the water on the ink stone and begun to rub\nup the ink, or taken brush-pen and paper in hand, Mr. Long Body had got\nwind of her complaining and it worried him. Why should he marry one who\ndidn\u2019t want him?\n\nThen, as he thought it over, being a very thrifty and economical\nbachelor, be began to doubt whether he could buy shoes enough to fit\nall the feet of his betrothed. He had not looked on her face or figure\nyet. Indeed it was hardly Korean etiquette that he should\u2014openly at\nleast. So far, he had not seen her tiny feet to count them up, but he\nsuspected that, since she belonged to the Pil family, she must have a\nthousand feet according to her reputation. When he came to calculate\nwhat it would cost him, even in cheap twine sandals, he was startled.\nWhen he figured out what ladies\u2019 turned up kids would come to he was so\nalarmed that he nearly fainted. At the sight of five hundred pairs of\nshoes, however tiny, his breath almost failed him and he saw himself\nruined. What should he do?\n\nAnd when she took off her foot-gear at night, where should he stow it\naway? Then, what a noise she would make, if she put on rough-soled\nshoes, while at her work around the house and yard. It was horrible for\na quiet bachelor even to think of the clatter she would make. Already\nhe felt deafness coming on. Should he break off the engagement? Yet how\ncould any one of the Wum family honorably do such a thing? What would\nthe neighbors say? Could he, if prone to breaking his word, get another\nbride of a family so respectable as that of the Pil?\n\nHowever he would sleep over it, as there were some days before the\nwedding. But next morning the matter cleared up, and he was able to\ncrawl into his hole and out of sight with comfort. He sent a letter to\nMiss Pil, setting forth the facts, and asking for a release from the\nengagement to marry. The substance of what he wrote was this; that\nowing to his small fortune he would be unable to buy her all the shoes,\nand of the kind which a lady of her quality and tastes required. He\ntherefore could not think of asking her to share his poverty, but\nbegged her to secure another husband who could do so.\n\nNow it happened that the letters crossed on the road. Each had a\nrefusal before the ink was dry; so neither could complain.\n\nSo there was no wedding, nor any frolic among the young folks, or\nfeasting of relatives, and to this day Miss Pil remains single and Mr.\nWum has no wife. They were very severe on the girl. All the gossips say\nthat it served the thousand-footed hussy right. Folks had better look\non the good points in a person\u2019s character and not dwell upon his\nfaults and defects. On the other hand, in Mr. Wum\u2019s village, all\ndeclare with one voice that bachelors should count up all the expense\nin getting married. Miss Pil still goes shoeless hiding from light\nunder a stone, and Mr. Wum keeps out of sight underground, for he has\nnothing to wear.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE SKY BRIDGE OF BIRDS\n\n\nNo bird is more common in Korea than the magpie. They are numbered by\nmillions. Every day in the year, except the seventh day of the seventh\nmonth, the air is full of them. On that date, however, they have a\nstanding engagement every year. They are all expected to be away from\nstreets and houses, for every well-bred magpie is then far up in the\nsky building a bridge across the River of Stars, called the Milky Way.\nWith their wings for the cables, and their heads to form the floor of\nthe bridge, they make a pathway for lovers on either side of the Silver\nStream.\n\nBoys and girls are usually very kind to the magpies, but if a single\none be found about the houses, on the roofs, or in the streets on the\nseventh of August, woe betide it! Every dirty-faced brat throws sticks\nor stones at the poor creature, for not being about its business of\nbridge-building across the Starry River. By evening time the magpies\nreturn to their usual places, for they are then supposed to have\nattended to their tasks and built the bridge.\n\nTo prove beyond a doubt that the bridge was made and walked over, you\nhave only to look at the bare heads of the magpies at this time. Their\nfeathers have been entirely worn off by the tramping of the crowd of\nretainers who follow the Prince of Star Land across the bridge to meet\nhis bride.\n\nIf it be wet weather on the morning of this day of the Weaver Maiden\nand the Cattle Prince, the rain-drops are the tears of joy shed by the\nlovers at their first meeting. If showers fall in the afternoon, they\nare the tears of sadness at saying farewell, when the prince and\nprincess leave each other. If any thunder is heard, every boy and girl\nknows that this comes from the rumble of the wagons which carry the\nbaggage of the prince and princess, as they move away, each from the\nother, homeward.\n\nNow, this is the story which the Korean mothers tell to their children\nof the Bridge of Birds.\n\nLong, long ago, in the Kingdom of the Stars, a king reigned who had a\nlovely daughter. Besides being the most beautiful to behold, she was a\nskilful weaver. There was no good thing to be done in the palace, but\nshe could do it. She was not only highly accomplished, but of sweet\ntemper and very willing. Being a model of all diligence, she was very\ngreatly beloved of her parents and her influence over her father was\nvery great. He would do almost anything to please his darling daughter.\n\nIn due time a young and very handsome prince, who lived in Star Land,\ncame to her father\u2019s court and fell in love with the pretty princess.\nHer parents consenting, the wedding was celebrated with great splendor.\n\nNow that she was a wife and had a home of her own to care for, she\nbecame all the more a model of lovely womanhood and an example to all\nthe maidens of Korea forever. Besides showing diligence in the care of\nclothes and food and in setting her servants a good example of thrift,\nshe thought much of their happiness. Her service to her husband was\nunremitting. Her chief ambition was to make his life one of constant\njoy.\n\nBut the prince, instead of following his bride\u2019s good example, and of\nappreciating what his beautiful and unselfish bride was doing for his\nhappiness, gave himself up to waste and extravagance. He became lazy\nand dissipated. Neglecting his duties, he wasted his own fortune and\nhis wife\u2019s dowry. He sold all his oxen and calves to get money only to\nlose it in gambling. He borrowed many and long ropes of coin from any\none who would lend him the brass and iron money. Finally he was so\nscandalously poor, being on his last string of cash, that he was in\ndanger of being degraded from his rank as prince, and of having his\nname spoken with contempt.\n\nThe King of the Stars, having seen his son-in-law on the downward way,\nhad more than once threatened to disinherit, or banish him, especially\nafter the prince had parted with his cattle. Yet when his daughter, the\nyoung wife, interceded and begged pardon for her husband, the king\nrelented, paid his son-in-law\u2019s debts and gave him another chance to do\nbetter. When, however, the worthless fellow fell back into his old\nways, and grew worse and worse, the king resolved to separate the pair,\none from the other. He banished the prince, far, far away, six months\u2019\ndistance from the north side of the River of Heaven, and exiled the\nprincess a half year\u2019s measure of space from the south side of the\nStarry Stream.\n\nAlthough the king in his wrath had hardened his heart, even against his\nown beloved child, and had driven her from court and palace, because of\nher worthless husband, yet, as a signal proof of his compassion, he\nordained that on one night of the year, on the seventh night of the\nseventh moon, they might meet for a few hours.\n\nThe young people parted and took their sad journey to the edge of the\nstarry heavens, but they loved each other so dearly that, as soon as\nthey arrived at their place of banishment, they turned round to meet\neach other on August 7th.\n\nSo when the day came, after six months\u2019 weary journeying, they had\nreached the edge of the Starry River, and there they stood, catching\nglimpses and waving their hands, but unable to get closer to each\nother. There one may see them on summer nights shining on opposite\nsides of the broad Stream of Stars, loving each other but unable to\ncross.\n\nFeeling that the great gulf of space could not be spanned, the loving\ncouple burst into tears. The flood from their eyes, making the river\noverflow, deluged the earth below, threatening to float everything,\nhouses, people, animals away. What could be done?\n\nThe four-footed creatures, fish and fowls, held a convention, but it\nwas agreed that only those birds with strong wings and able to fly high\ncould do anything. So the magpies, with many flattering speeches, were\ncommended to the enterprise.\n\nWhen these noisy and chattering creatures, that are nevertheless so\nkind and friendly to the sparrows, heard of the lovers\u2019 troubles aloft,\nthey resolved to help the sorrowing pair over the River of Stars. Out\nof their big, ugly nests they flew gladly to the convention that voted\nto build the bridge. Sending out word all over the world, millions of\nmagpies assembled in the air. Under the direction of their wisest\nchiefs, they began their work of making, with a mass of wings, a flying\nbridge that would reach from shore to shore of the Starry Stream.\nFirst, they put their heads together to furnish a floor, and, so\nclosely, that the bridge looked as if it were paved with white granite.\nThen with their pinions they held up the great arch and highway, over\nwhich the prince crossed to his bride with all his baggage and train of\nfollowers. The tables were soon spread and the two royal lovers enjoyed\na feast, with many tender words and caresses.\n\nEvery year, for ages past, on the seventh day of the seventh month, the\nmagpies have done this. Indeed, although the star lovers meet only once\na year, yet as they live on forever the wife has her husband and the\nhusband his wife much longer than mortal couples who live on earth. It\nis law in the magpie kingdom that no bird can shirk this work.\n\nAny magpie that tries to get out of the task and that is too bad or\nlazy to do its part in bridge building, is chased away by the Korean\nchildren, who want no such truant around. For does not every girl hope\nto be as diligent and accomplished as the Star Princess, so that when\nshe grows up she may make as good a wife as the lovely lady that every\nyear stands by the Starry River to meet her lord? As for the boys, it\nis hoped that they will become as faithful husbands as the penitent\nbridegroom, who every year, on the night of August 7th, awaits his\nbride on the shining shore of the River of Stars.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLONGKA, THE DANCING GIRL\n\n\nAfter the islanders in the Eastern Ocean had found out how rich Korea\nwas, they were not satisfied with their own land. They seemed to have\neyes like dragon flies, that wanted everything they saw. They kept on\nborrowing until they got many of the plants and animals which they now\npossess, which as everybody knows came from the Land of Morning Glory.\n\nEven the neko, or Korean cat, was carried over to the islands; though\nin some way it lost its tail on the voyage or else had it bobbed. This\nis the reason why poor pussy in these islands seems to carry around\nwith her something like a corkscrew, instead of a tail. Moreover, when\nthe Korean puss, that had so long been accustomed to scrambling over\nthe roofs and back alleys at home, was introduced into the islands, it\nwas thought to be a wild animal, and for a long time was treated as a\nfox or badger would be. However, because it kept down the rats and the\nmice this bob-tailed puss was highly valued.\n\nYet not content with borrowing so many things, the greedy islemen\nthought they might as well have all Korea and everything in it, and\nthen go further and overrun China.\n\nSo they sent a great army in a mighty fleet of ships to invade the\nKoreans\u2019 country. They took horses with them, but as their soldiers\nwere fed chiefly on rice, salt fish and pickles, they did not need any\nwagons. They had only oxen to draw their carts, for they had never\ntrained horses to pull anything, but only to be pack and saddle\nanimals.\n\nThis army of islanders marched to the capital, in which were palaces,\nand pagodas. Then they sent one of their armies along the sea front and\nanother along the west coast. They expected to march into China, but\ntwo things happened to prevent this. So, after they had wasted and\ntarried in the country for five years, they gave it up and were sent\nhome flying.\n\nFrom the north a Chinese army came to the help of the Koreans and drove\nthe islemen to the coast. But when they got there they found their\nships were gone. A clever Korean admiral had invented an iron-clad ship\nthat rammed and sunk their war junks. So their army had to wait till a\nnew fleet of ships had been built and then came over to take them back.\n\nBut before the islanders left Korea they smashed statues and monuments,\nbroke up images and even the observatories for the study of the stars.\nThey took marble pagodas apart to load on their ships and carry away.\nThey enticed, or forced to go with them, hundreds of the Korean\npotters, artists, and craftsmen.\n\nFor, by this time, the islanders had given up living in huts of straw\nand roving about like Arabs or gypsies. They had cities with paved\nstreets, like as in Korea, though they had none of the beautiful marble\npagodas and images and temples, for everything was of wood, while\nthousands of large buildings and images in Korea were of stone,\nchiseled into beautiful forms.\n\nNow in Korea there were some beautiful daughters of the land and many\nnoblemen and men of courage, who determined not to be carried away from\ntheir dearly beloved country. Of this, in southern Korea, the Rock of\nthe Fallen Flower is to this day the witness.\n\nOver three hundred years ago, when \u201cthe terrible fighting dwarfs,\u201d as\nthe Koreans called their enemies, came, they encamped in a town where\nlived a beautiful dancing girl named Longka. Being a ge-sang, (gei-sha)\nor accomplished young lady, she could sing beautifully. The islanders\ntook this lovely damsel prisoner and made her a waitress in the\ngeneral\u2019s tent.\n\nOne night a great banquet was given in a famous pleasure hall named the\nCliff House, because it was built on the high bank overlooking a deep\nriver. All the chief captains were invited and the large room was\nilluminated with a thousand wax lights. These were tall and square\ncandles, moulded into a beautiful shape, and each one was painted and\ndecorated with figures of flowers, birds and pet animals. Very odd and\nornamental is a Korean candle.\n\nO how charming was the dancer, and what a beautiful sight to behold,\nwas her graceful posing! For, Korean dances tell stories of birds and\nflowers, of summer, and of lovely snow-covered landscapes in winter, of\na boat in a storm, of a tiger in a trap, of a brave soldier in battle,\nor a sad lady in the palace, or of the fairy tales of the Western Queen\nMother and many others. Those who watch the dance and know the manners\nand customs, the dancer\u2019s gestures and poses, the motions of her fan\nand sleeves, besides the games of the children, the sports of the\npeople, the harvest songs and the fun at the festivals, can read,\nbecause they see, the story of each told in most graceful motions.\nThere are several languages, besides words which are spoken, and these\nappeal to the eye, instead of the ear.\n\nThe pretty dancer was robed in pure white, with ermine-edged slippers,\nand jeweled girdle, and her shining hair was done up like a queen\u2019s.\nLoud was the applause among the spectators at the end of every dance.\n\nAfter the dinner was over, the general of the islanders grew very\nlively, because he had drunk much wine, and was not satisfied to see\nthe dances of the lovely girl. Some of the rude soldiers also wanted to\nwaltz with the beautiful maiden. But it was not the custom for Korean\nvirgins to dance, or waltz, with male partners; for in this Country of\nGentle Manners, dancing is by the sexes apart.\n\nYet the rough islanders insisted and forced her so hard, that she felt\nthat both her own modesty and her country were outraged. She thought of\nthe thousands of her countrymen, brothers, fathers and friends, who had\ndied on the battle field, in defending their beloved land. Why should\nnot she? So, pretending to yield to her country\u2019s enemies, she drew the\ngeneral out of the banqueting hall and down toward the river, close to\nthe edge of the rock.\n\nBefore he knew her purpose she seized his hands and leaped out,\ndragging her enemy with her over the cliff, and both passed into the\nother world.\n\nShe died for her country. To this day, the Rock of the Falling Flower\nis pointed out, and the story is told that here was exhibited a woman\u2019s\ndevotion to her country. Around this rock poets have entwined their\nverses, while romantic associations cluster like the azalea flowers,\nthat cover the hills of Korea with a riot of color, making their land\nseem to the natives the most beautiful on earth.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA FROG FOR A HUSBAND\n\n\nOff in a valley among very stony mountains, lived an old farmer named\nPak We and his wife. His land was poor and he had to toil from sunrise\nto sunset and often in the night, when the moon was shining, to get\nfood. No child had ever come to his home and he was in too great\nstraits of poverty to adopt a son. So he took his amusement in fishing\nin the pond higher up on the hills, that fed the stream which watered\nhis millet and rice fields. Being very skilful he often caught a good\nstring of fish and these he sold in the village near by to get for\nhimself and his wife the few comforts they needed. Thus the old couple\nkept themselves happy, despite their cheerless life, though they often\nwondered what would become of them when they got too old to work.\n\nBut one summer Pak noticed that there were fewer fish in the pond and\nthat every day they seemed to be less in number. Where he used to catch\na stringful in an hour, he could hardly get half that many during a\nwhole day.\n\nWhat was the matter? Was he getting less skilful? Was the bait poor?\n\nNot at all! His worms were as fat, his hooks and lines in as good\norder, and his eyesight was as keen as ever.\n\nWhen Pak noticed also that the water was getting shallower, he was\nstartled. Could it be that the pond was drying up?\n\nThings grew worse day by day until at last there were no fish.\n\nWhere once sparkled the wavelets of a pond was now an arid waste of\nearth and stones, over which trickled hardly more than a narrow rill,\nwhich he could jump over. No fish and no pond meant no water for his\nrice fields. In horror at the idea of starving, or having to move away\nfrom his old home and become a pauper, Pak looked down from what had\nbeen the banks of the pond to find the cause of all this trouble. There\nin the mud among the pebbles he saw a bullfrog, nearly as big as an\nelephant, blinking at him with its huge round eyes.\n\nIn a rage the farmer Pak burst out, charging the frog with cruelty in\neating up all the fish and drinking up all the water, threatening\nstarvation to man and wife. Then Pak proceeded to curse the whole line\nof the frog\u2019s ancestors and relatives, especially in the female line,\nfor eight generations back, as Koreans usually do.\n\nBut instead of being sorry, or showing any anger at such a scolding,\nthe bullfrog only blinked and bowed, saying:\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t worry, Farmer Pak. You\u2019ll be glad of it, by and by. Besides, I\nwant to go home with you and live in your house.\n\n\u201cWhat! Occupy my home, you clammy reptile! No you won\u2019t,\u201d said Pak.\n\n\u201cOh! but I have news to tell you and you won\u2019t be sorry, for you see\nwhat I can do. Better take me in.\u201d\n\nOld Pak thought it over. How should he face his wife with such a guest?\nBut then, the frog had news to tell and that might please the old lady,\nwho was fond of gossip. Since her husband was not very talkative, she\nmight be willing to harbor so strange a guest.\n\nSo they started down the valley. Pak shuffled along as fast as his old\nshins could move, but the bullfrog covered the distance in a few leaps,\nfor his hind legs were three feet long.\n\nArrived at his door, Mrs. Pak was horrified at the prospect of boarding\nsuch a guest. But when the husband told her that Froggie knew all about\neverybody and could chat interestingly by the hour, she changed her\nmanner and bade him welcome. Indeed, she so warmed in friendliness that\nshe gave him one of her best rooms. All the leaves, grass and brushwood\nthat had been gathered in the wood-shed to supply the kitchen fire and\nhouse flues, was carried into the room. There it was doused with tubs\nof water to make a nice soft place such as bullfrogs like. After this\nhe was fed all the worms he wanted.\n\nThen after his dinner and a nap, Mrs. Pak and Mr. Pak donned their best\nclothes and went in to make a formal call on their guest.\n\nMr. Bullfrog was so affable and charming in conversation, besides\ntelling so many good stories and serving up so many dainty bits of\ngossip, that Mrs. Pak was delighted beyond expression. Indeed, she felt\nalmost like adopting Froggie as her son.\n\nThe night passed quietly away, but when the first rays of light\nappeared, Froggie was out on the porch singing a most melodious tune to\nthe rising sun. When Mr. and Mrs. Pak rose up to greet their guest and\nto hear his song, they were amazed to find that the music was bringing\nthem blessings. Everything they had wished for, during their whole\nlives, seemed now at hand, with more undreamed of coming in troops. In\nthe yard stood oxen, donkeys and horses loaded with every kind of box,\nbale and bundle waiting to be unloaded and more were coming; stout men\nporters appeared and began to unpack, while troops of lovely girls in\nshining white took from the men\u2019s hands beautiful things made of jade,\ngold and silver. There were fine clothes and hats for Mr. Pak,\njade-tipped hairpins, tortoise-shell and ivory combs, silk gowns,\nembroidered and jeweled girdles and every sort of frocks and woman\u2019s\ngarments for Mrs. Pak, besides inlaid cabinets, clothes-racks and\nwardrobes. Above all, was a polished metal mirror that looked like the\nfull autumn moon, over which Mrs. Pak was now tempted to spend every\nminute of her time.\n\nFour or five of the prettiest maidens they had ever seen in all their\nlives danced, sang and played sweetest music. The unpacking of boxes,\nbales and bundles continued. Tables of jade and finest sandalwood were\nspread with the richest foods and wines. Soon, under the skilful hands\nof carpenters and decorators, instead of oiled paper on the floors,\ncovering old bricks and broken flat stones set over the flues, and\nsmoky rafters and mud walls poorly papered, there rose a new house. It\nhad elegant wide halls, and large rooms with partitions made of\nchoicest joiner work. It was furnished with growing flowers, game\nboards for chess and had everything in it like a palace. As for the\nriches of the larder and the good things to eat daily laid on the\ntable, no pen but a Korean\u2019s can tell of them all. In the new\nstorehouse were piles of dried fish, edible seaweed, bags of rice, bins\nof millet, tubs of kim-chi made of various sorts of the pepper-hash and\nKorean hot pickle in which the natives delight, to say nothing of\npeaches, pears, persimmons, chestnuts, honey, barley, sugar, candy,\ncake and pastry, all arranged in high piles and in gay colors.\n\nThe old couple seemed able to eat and enjoy twice as big dinners as\nformerly, for all the while the adopted Bullfrog was very entertaining.\nMr. and Mrs. Pak laughed continually, declaring they had never heard\nsuch good stories as he told. The good wife was, however, quite equal\nto her guest in retailing gossip. One of her favorite subjects, of\nwhich she never tired, was the beauty and charm of Miss Peach. She was\nthe accomplished daughter of the big Yang-ban, or nobleman, Mr. Poom,\nwho lived in a great house, with a host of servants and retainers in\nthe next village, and Mrs. Pak insisted there was no young woman in the\nworld like her. It was noticed that Mr. Bullfrog was particularly\ninterested when Miss Peach Poom was the subject of the old lady\u2019s\npraises.\n\nAfter a week of such luxury, during which Mr. and Mrs. Pak seemed to\ndwell in the Nirvana, or Paradise, which the good priests often talked\nabout, Mr. Pak\u2019s full cup of joy was dashed to earth when the Bullfrog\ninformed him that he intended to marry, and that Mr. Pak must get him a\nwife. Still worse than that, Pak was informed by the Frog that he would\nhave no one but Miss Peach, the daughter of Poom, so renowned for her\nbeauty and graces.\n\nAt this, old Pak went nearly wild. He begged to be excused from the\ntask, but the Bullfrog was inexorable. So, after inprecating his wife\u2019s\ntongue, for her ever putting it into the frog\u2019s head to marry Miss\nPeach, he donned his fine clothes and set out to see Mr. Poom. He\nexpected to be beaten to death for his brazen effrontery in asking a\nnoble lady to marry a frog.\n\nNow this Mr. Poom had long been the magistrate of a district, who had\nsqueezed much money wrongly from the poor people over whom he ruled,\nand having won great wealth, had retired and come back to his native\nplace to live. This man had two daughters married, but the third, the\nyoungest and most beautiful, Miss Peach, was now eighteen years old.\n\nArriving at the Pooms\u2019 grand mansion, Mr. Pak told of the suitor\u2019s\nwealth, power and fame, high position and promise, and how he had made\nthe old couple happy.\n\nOld Poom had pricked up his ears from the first mention of riches and\npower, and became highly interested as Pak went on sounding the praises\nof his prospective son-in-law.\n\n\u201cAnd what is his name?\u201d asked Mr. Poom.\n\nHere Pak was in a quandary. He knew that the frog family was the oldest\nand most numerous in the world and was famous for fine voices. He fell\ninto a brown study for a few minutes. Then, looking up he declared that\nhe had so long thought of the suitor\u2019s graces and accomplishments, that\nhe had forgotten his name and could not then recall it.\n\nSo Mr. Poom, in order to help Pak out, ran over the list of famous\nfamilies in Korea, reciting the names of the Kims, Sims, Mins, the Hos,\nChos, Kos, Quongs and Hongs, etc., etc., for Mr. Poom was an authority\non the Korean peerage.\n\n\u201cIt is none of these,\u201d said Pak. \u201cI deeply regret that I cannot recall\nthe name.\u201d\n\n\u201cStrange,\u201d said Mr. Poom. \u201cI have named all the families of any\nstanding in the kingdom. What is his office or rank and where do his\nrelations live?\u201d\n\nPak was pressed so hard by Mr. Poom\u2019s searching questions that at last\nhe had to confess that the suitor for the beautiful maiden was not a\nman but a frog.\n\n\u201cWhat! do you want me to marry my daughter to a pond-croaker? You shall\nsuffer for thus insulting me in my own house. Slaves, bring the\ncross-bench and give this wretch twenty blows.\u201d\n\nForthwith, while four men brought out the whipping bench, three others\nseized poor Pak, stripped off his coat, and bound him with feet and\narms stretched out to the bench. Then a tall, stalwart fellow raised\nthe huge paddle of wood to let fall with all his might on the bare\nflesh of the old man.\n\nBut all this while the sky was darkening, and, before the first blow\nwas given, the lightning flashed, the thunder rolled, and floods of\nrain fell that threatened to overwhelm house, garden, and all in a\ndeluge. The hail, which began to pelt the cattle, was first the size of\nan egg and then of stones, like cannon-balls.\n\n\u201cHold,\u201d cried the frightened Mr. Poom. \u201cI\u2019ll wait and ask further.\u201d\n\nThereupon the lightning and thunder ceased, the sun burst out in\nsplendor.\n\nMightily impressed by this, Mr. Poom at last agreed to let his daughter\nbecome the bride of the frog, not telling her who her husband was to\nbe. Within an hour, while she was getting ready, a string of fine\nhorses and donkeys with palanquins loaded with presents for the bride\nand her family appeared. Besides boxes of silk dresses and perfumes,\nhead-gear and articles for a lady\u2019s boudoir, there were troops of\nmaidens to wait on the bride. Arraying Miss Peach in the loveliest of\nrobes, they also dressed her hair, until, what with satin puffs and\nframe, jade-tipped silver hairpins, rosettes and flowers, her head-gear\nstood over a foot high above her forehead, on which was the bride\u2019s red\nround spot. Then when the happy maiden had sufficiently admired herself\nin the metal mirror and heard the praises of her attendant virgins, she\nentered the bridal palanquin\u2014a gorgeous mass of splendor. According to\ncustom, her eyes were sealed shut and covered with wax, for a Korean\nbride sees nothing of her husband until the end of the feast, when she\nmeets him in the bridal chamber.\n\nSo to his house she was carried in great pomp and with gay attendance\nof brilliantly arrayed maidens. The marriage ceremony and the grand\nsupper were happy affairs for all the guests, even though the bride,\naccording to Korean etiquette, was as if blind, quietly and patiently\nwaiting sightless throughout the whole joyful occasion. The actual\nceremony was witnessed only by the foster-parents and the bridegroom.\n\nWhen in the bridal chamber, the bride having unsealed her eyes, and her\nvision being clear, she looked up at the one she had married and found\nnot a man, but a frog, she was furiously angry. She burst out into a\nprotest against having such a bridegroom.\n\nGently and in tenderest tones the bridegroom attempted first to comfort\nher. Then, handing her a pair of scissors, he begged her to rip open\nthe skin along his back from shoulder to thigh, for it was very tight\nand he was suffering pain from it.\n\nIn her bitter disappointment at being married to a frog, she seized the\nscissors and almost viciously began to cut from nape to waist. Her\nsurprise was great to find what seemed to be silk underneath the\nspeckled skin. When she had slit down two yards or so, her husband the\nfrog stood upon his hind legs. He twisted himself about as if in a\nconvulsion, pulled his whole speckled hide hard with his front paws,\nand then jumping out of his skin, stood before his bride a prince.\nFair, tall, of superb figure, and gorgeously arrayed, he was the ideal\nof her dreams. A jeweled baldric bound his waist, embroidery of golden\ndragons on his shoulders and breast told of his rank, while on his head\nwas the cap of royalty with a sparkling diamond in the center. Yet no\nclothes, handsome as they were, could compare in beauty with his\nglorious manhood. Never had she seen so fair a mortal.\n\nHappy was the bride whose feelings were thus changed in a moment from\nrepulsion and horror to warmest affection and strongest veneration. The\nnext morning when, to the amazement of his foster-father and mother,\nMr. and Mrs. Pak, the prince presented himself and his bride at\nbreakfast, he told the story of his life. As son of the King of the\nStars he had committed some offense, in punishment for which his father\ncondemned him to live upon the earth in the form of a frog. Furthermore\nhe had laid upon his son the duty of performing three tasks. These must\nbe done before he should be allowed to come back and live in Star Land.\nThese were, to drink up all the water in the lake, to eat all the fish,\nand to win a human bride, the handsomest woman in the world.\n\nAll the precious things which he had presented to Pak and his wife to\nmake their old days comfortable, and the gifts sent to the bride\u2019s\nhouse before her wedding-day, had come by power from the skies. Now,\nleaving his foster-parents on earth to enjoy their gifts, he must\nreturn home to his father, taking his bride with him. Scarcely had he\nspoken these words than a chariot and horses, silver bright, appeared\nat the door of the house. Bowing low to his foster-parents, and\nstepping in with his bride, the pair disappeared beyond the clouds.\n\nFrom this time forth a new double star was seen in the sky.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSHOES FOR HATS\n\n\nMany centuries ago when Korea was named Chosen, or the Land of Morning\nSplendor, the island-kingdom out in the eastern sea, where the sun\nrises, was called The Land of the Dragon-Fly; which some foolish people\ncall \u201cthe Devil\u2019s Darning Needle,\u201d because its body is so slender, its\nwings so wide and its eyes so big. The Koreans called these islanders\n\u201cdwarfs,\u201d because they were not tall of stature, though they were very\nwarlike and brave. The isle men had no books or letters, and were very\nrude in their manners.\n\nTherefore, many kind teachers, filled with the spirit of Great Buddha,\ncrossed the sea, from Everlasting Great Korea, to teach these islanders\npoliteness, and how to read and write, and to build pagodas, and\ntemples and schools.\n\nThis is the reason why these islanders, who had no story books or\nwriting before the coming of the Korean teachers, have no ancient\nhistory of what happened long, long ago when Korea was a great country.\nSo the grandmothers in the islands used to tell their children the good\nold fairy tales, which many elderly people know by heart, and can\nrelate without reading, thinking that the kings and queens they talked\nabout were real people, when they were only dreams.\n\nThe islanders call their country The Land Where the Day Begins, and\nthere are many fairies in these islands, some good, some bad.\n\nSo today, these island people make pictures in books and plays on the\nstage, and \u201cmovies\u201d about these Koreans. They get up tableaux and\npageants to tell how first the fairies and the King\u2019s servants from\nthese far off islands, long ago came to Korea. They wanted to learn\npoliteness, how to make and wear the proper kind of clothes, and how to\ndraw and paint, how to make pictures, how to build houses, how to dance\nand sing, and make music and play on instruments, how to teach and have\nschools. For the good fairies always like to do pretty things.\n\nYet instead of being grateful for what they had received from Korea,\nthere was one of these island people, a famous woman, who was envious\nbecause she lived in a poor land while the Koreans had a rich and\nbeautiful country. Instead of swamps and grassy plains, with plenty of\nwild beasts and birds, and only a few people, poor and miserable, Korea\nwas rich in rice fields and orchards full of fruit. Flowers grew in\nplenty. Birds, deer, and rabbits were numerous in the mountains and the\nscenery was beautiful.\n\nIn the warm waters millions of fat fish swam and were easily caught. So\nthe people had plenty of food to eat. Down along the bottom of the sea\nwere most lovely water plants of rich colors, yellow, purple, green and\nwhite, with sea weeds, corals and sponges. In some of the sea caves\nlurked the giant crabs, cuttle-fish and every sort of marine monster.\n\nStill further down, below, deeper than any line could fathom, dwelt the\nDragon King of the World Under the Sea and his Queen, with genii and\ndragons, and all her attendant maidens. These made sweet music, and\nhere amid the mermaids the fairies had a happy time.\n\nThese islanders had priests who went down by the seaside when the tide\nwas low. There they called on the spirits of the deep to grant them a\nsafe voyage, good luck, victory over the Koreans, and safe return.\nThere they stood and watched the rippling waves as the breezes blew\nover the sea.\n\nThe first living thing that poked its nose above the waters was the\nguardian of the seashore and the tides, called the Salt Water Giant. He\ncame up with his head all covered with clam and oyster shells, sea\nweed, shrimps and whatever grows in the sand or bottom of the ocean. He\nhad to push aside hundreds of white jelly fish that bumped against him,\nas the clumsy old chap made his way up to the surface and then waded to\nthe shore.\n\nNow this giant fairy was a grumpy sort of a fellow, and seeing the\nQueen and her soldiers he growled out: \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d\n\nVery politely the Queen\u2019s messenger made a soft answer to the big\nfellow and begged him to announce to his master, the Dragon King of the\nWorld Under the Sea, that the Queen wished him to help her.\n\nWould he please order all the great fish and every sea monster to go\nahead and pull her ship forward?\n\nWould he also present her with the two sparkling tide-jewels, which\ngovern the ebb and the flood tides? If he would do so, then, in the one\ncase her enemies might be overwhelmed. In the other case, the ships of\nthe Koreans would be left high and dry on the shore. Then she could\nmarch through the country and get all the gold and gems, and furs and\njewels, and clothes and nice things to eat, and bring them back to her\nown country.\n\nWith the tide jewels in her hand she could certainly conquer.\n\n\u201cAnd if you please, one thing more,\u201d added the messenger.\n\n\u201cWhat else do you want?\u201d growled the Salt Water Giant.\n\n\u201cHave your master, the Dragon King, give our queen power to capture\nmany hundreds of the Korean artists, craftsmen, teachers, and men of\nbooks and letters. We shall make these men prisoners and bring them to\nour country and be civilized.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what will you do in return to me and my master for all this?\u201d\nroared the Salt Water Giant. His voice was like a booming cannon for he\nwas as mad as fire.\n\n\u201cAs soon as we get back safely to these shores, our Queen will build a\ntemple in honor of the Dragon King. We shall burn incense to him, and\nour people will pay him our devotions.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell then, what else?\u201d roared the Salt Water Giant.\n\n\u201cThere will be a shrine also dedicated to you, my lord, and we\u2019ll get\nthe best Korean artists to decorate it it in wave patterns, with drops\nof foam.\u201d\n\nThe Salt Water Giant bowed and disappeared with a tremendous splash.\nDown, down, down, he went to report to his master, the Dragon King of\nthe World Under the Sea.\n\nIt was necessary for the dignity of His Majesty, that the Queen and her\nsoldiers should wait until flood tide; for the Dragon King never\nappeared except at high water. So the Queen\u2019s servant launched her ship\nand waited out on the waves for the answer they hoped to get.\n\nNo sooner did the tide mark on the sea beach show that the waves had\nreached the highest point of flood tide, than the sea opened. The white\nfoam curled round the Queen\u2019s ship while all on board held their\nbreath, to see what was coming. They knew they would soon behold a\nsight to make them shiver, for the great deep was mightily stirred.\n\nFirst rose into view a terrible dragon\u2019s head, on the helmet of the\nKing. It had eyes that seemed to flash fire. Then His Majesty appeared.\nIn a great sea shell, as big as a bushel and held in both hands, he had\nthe two tide jewels.\n\nThese he presented to the Queen and then quickly disappeared beneath\nthe waves. The last thing they saw was the dragon\u2019s head, which,\nbesides the two eyes like lightning, had teeth that could bite a boat\nin half, even when full of men. This monster could swallow down the\nwhole crew in his mouth, that was as wide as a man-eating shark\u2019s. His\nenormously long black moustaches were as stout as ships\u2019 cables.\n\nImmediately after receiving the tide jewels, the Queen of the\nbarbarians landed on the southern coast of Korea. After a few weeks,\nhaving fought many battles with the Koreans, she made them bring to her\ntheir gold, jewels, furs, fans, rice and pretty things.\n\nShe and her people cared nothing about slaves, or common prisoners, but\nwhenever and wherever they could find a painter, an artist, a costumer,\na maker of pottery, or a man of books, or a priest, they seized and\ntook him along. They carried over with them, to the island, a great\ntreasure of gems, gold, ornaments and pretty clothes. They also took\naway many seeds of flowers and fruit trees, such as lemons, oranges,\napples and pears.\n\nIn the islands to which they came, these smart men of skill and\nknowledge from Korea taught the islanders, who had lived like gypsies\nor Indians, how to build houses, palaces, and temples, to make fine\nclothes, to paint pictures, and to be like the Koreans and Chinese who\nknew all about these things. So the islands became rich in fruit, rice,\ngrain, pagodas and temples. After this the island people wore lovely\nclothes, and had fine manners.\n\nNow the islanders were great borrowers. They invented very few things\nthemselves, but depended on their neighbors for much of what they had.\nSo they filled both their heads and pockets from what they had brought\nfrom Korea. But they often made funny mistakes. When they wanted to\nlearn about fine manners and fine clothes, they asked what, on solemn\noccasions, and in time of ceremony, they should put on their heads.\n\nThe Koreans were greatly offended at these savages from over the sea\nfor invading their country and taking away their artists and craftsmen.\nSo they now resolved to play a trick on the islanders.\n\nSo when men from the isles in the ocean sent a company of men to Korea\nand asked for caps to put on their heads, and be shown how do to things\nproperly, the Koreans in contempt gave them their old shoes, which had\nstrings on them to tie over their feet.\n\nBut the islanders, who loved to go about with little clothing on their\nbacks, and usually went barefoot, did not know what these shoes were.\nThey thought these were some kind of head-gear, hats or bonnets.\n\nSo they put them on their heads like skull caps and tied them with the\nwhite strings down under their chins. These were like tapes and held\nthe caps on around their necks.\n\nSo to this day the islanders, when making offerings to the fairies,\nwear this head-gear and think their shoe-caps are very fine.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE VOICE OF THE BELL\n\n\nWhen Tai Jo, the great general and first King of Korea, founded a new\ndynasty, he moved the capital near the great river Han and resolved to\nbuild a mighty city called Han Yang, or the Castle on the Han. It was\nto have a high wall around it and lofty gates on each side. However,\nthe people commonly called the city Seoul, or Capital. All the roads in\nthe kingdom lead to it.\n\nHappy was he when the workmen, in digging for the foundations of the\nEast Gate, came upon a bell. It was a lucky omen and they carried it at\nonce to the king. He had it suspended over the entrance to his palace\nand there it still hangs.\n\nBut such a bell could only tinkle, while King Tai Jo wanted one that\nwould boom loud and long. He was especially anxious about this, for in\nSilla, once a rival state, there had hung for centuries one of the\nbiggest bells in the world and Tai Jo wanted one that excelled even\nthat famed striker of the hours. He would have even a larger bell to\nhang in the central square in the heart of Seoul, that could be heard\nby every man, woman and child in the city. After that, it must be able\nto flood miles of hill and valley with its melody. By this sound the\npeople would know when to get up, cook their breakfast, sit down to\nsupper, or go to bed. On special occasions his subjects would know when\na king\u2019s procession was passing, or a royal prince or princess was\nbeing married. It would sound out a dirge when, His Majesty being dead,\nall the land must mourn and the people wear white clothes for three\nyears and Korea becomes the land of mourners. The guardian spirit of\nthe city would have its home in the bell.\n\nWord was sent out by messengers who rode on big horses, little ponies,\ndonkeys and bulls to all the provinces, publishing the king\u2019s command\nto all governors, magistrates and village-heads to collect the copper\nand tin to make the bronze metal. The bell was to stand ten feet above\nthe ground and be eight feet across; that is, as high and wide as a\nKorean bedroom. On the top, forming the framework, by which the bell\nwas to be hung, were to be two terrible looking dragons. Weighing so\nmany tons that it would balance five hundred fat men on a seesaw, only\nheavy beams made of whole tree-trunks could hold it in the belfry,\nwhich must be strong enough to stand the shaking when the monster was\nrung. It had no clapper inside, but without, swung by heavy ropes from\npulleys above, was a long log. This, men pulled back and then let fly,\nstriking the boss on the bell\u2019s surface. This awoke the music of the\nbell, making it toll, boom, rumble, growl, hum, croak, or roll sweet\nmelody, according as the old bellman desired.\n\nSo the procession of bullock carts on the roads to Seoul creaked with\nthe ingots of copper. Many a donkey had swallowed gallons of bean soup\nat the inn stables before he dropped his load of metal in the city,\nwhile hundreds of bulls bellowed under their weight of the brushwood\nand timber piled on their backs to feed the furnaces, which were to\nmelt the alloy for the casting of the mighty bell.\n\nDeep was the pit dug to hold the core and mould, and hundreds of\nfire-clay pots and ladles were made ready for use when the red-hot\nstream should be ready to flow. All the boys in Seoul were waiting to\nwatch the fire kindle, the smoke rise, the bellows roar, the metal run,\nand the foreman give the signal to tap.\n\nWhen the fire-imp in the volcano heard of what was going on, he was\nawfully jealous, not thinking ever that common men could handle so much\nmetal, direct properly such roaring flames, and cast so big a bell. He\nsnorted at the idea that King Tai Jo\u2019s men could beat the bells that\nhung in China\u2019s mighty temples or in Silla\u2019s pagodas.\n\nBut when there was not yet enough and the copper collectors were still\nat their work, one of them came to a certain village and called at a\nhouse where lived an old woman carrying a baby boy strapped to her\nback. She had no coin, cash, metal, or fuel to give, but was quite\nready to offer either herself or the baby. In a tone that showed her\nwillingness, she said:\n\n\u201cMay I give you this boy?\u201d\n\nThe collector paid no attention to her, but passed on, taking nothing\nfrom the old woman. When in Seoul, however, he told the story. Thus it\ncame to pass that many heard of the matter and remembered it later.\n\nSo when all was ready, the fire-clay crucibles were set on the\nwhite-hot coals. The blast roared until the bronze metal turned to\nliquid. Then, at the word of the master, the hissing, molten stream ran\nout and filled the mould. Patiently waiting till the metal cooled,\nalas! they found the bell cracked.\n\nThe casting was raised by means of heavy tackle, erected at great\nexpense on the spot, and the bell was broken up into bits by stalwart\nblacksmiths, wielding heavy hammers. Then a second casting was made,\nbut again, when cool, it was found to be cracked.\n\nThree separate times this happened, until the price of a palace had\nbeen paid for work, fuel, and wages, and yet there was no bell. King\nTai Jo was in despair. Yet, instead of crying, or pulling his topknot,\nor berating the artisans, who had done the best they could, he offered\na large reward to any one who could point out where the trouble lay, or\nshow what was lacking, and thus secure a perfect casting. Thereupon out\nstepped a workman from the company, who told the story of the old woman\nand said that the bell would crack after every cooling unless her\nproposal was accepted. Anyway, he said, the hag was a sorceress, and if\nthe child were not a real human being no harm could be done.\n\nSo the baby boy was sent for and, when the liquid metal had half filled\nthe pit, was thrown into the mass. There was some feeling about\n\u201cfeeding a child to the fire demon,\u201d but when they hoisted the cooled\nbell up from the mould, lo, the casting was a perfect success and every\none apparently forgot about the human life that had entered the bell.\nSoon with file and chisel, the great work was finished. The hanging\nceremonies were very impressive when the bell was put in place on the\ncity\u2019s central square, where the broad streets from the South Gate and\nthose looking to sunrise and sunset met together. Suspended by heavy\niron links from the staple on a stout timber frame, the bell\u2019s mouth\nwas exactly a foot above ground. Then, around and over it, was built\nthe belfry. The names of the chief artisans who cast the bell and of\nthe royal officers who superintended the hanging ceremonies were\nengraved on the metal. It was decided, however, not to strike the bell\nuntil it was fully housed and the sounder or suspended log of wood, as\nthick as the mast of a ship, was made ready to send forth the initial\nboom.\n\nMeanwhile tens of thousands of people waited to hear the first music of\nthe bell. Every one believed it to be good luck and that they would\nlive the longer for it. The boys and girls could hardly go to bed for\nlistening, and some were afraid they might be asleep when it boomed.\nThe little folks, whose eyes were usually fast shut at sunset, begged\nhard to stay up that night until they could hear the bell, but some\nfell asleep, because they could not help it, and their eyes closed\nbefore they knew it.\n\n\u201cWhat shall the name of the bell be, your Majesty?\u201d asked a wise\ncounselor.\n\n\u201cCall it In Jung,\u201d said King Tai Jo. \u201cThat means \u2018Man Decides,\u2019 for\nevery night, at nine o\u2019clock, let every man or boy decide to go to bed.\nExcept magistrates, let not one male person be found in the street on\npain of being paddled. From that hour until midnight the women shall\nhave the streets to themselves to walk in.\u201d The royal law was\nproclaimed by trumpeters and it was ordained also that every morning\nand evening, at sunrise and sunset, the band of music should play at\nthe opening and shutting of the city gates.\n\nSo In Jung, or \u201cMasculine Decision,\u201d is the bell\u2019s name to this day.\n\nBut as yet the bell was silent. It had not spoken. When it did sound,\nthe Seoul people discovered that it was the most wonderful bell ever\ncast. It had a memory and a voice. It could wail, as well as sing. In\nfact, some to this day declare it can cry; for, whether in childhood,\nyouth, middle or old age, in joy or gladness, the bell expresses their\nown feelings by its change of note, lively or gay, in warning or\ncongratulation.\n\nAt nine o\u2019clock in the first night of the seventh moon\u2014the month of the\nStar Maiden of the Loom and the Ox-boy with his train of attendants,\nwho stand on opposite sides of the River of Heaven and cross over on\nthe bridge of birds, the great bell of Seoul was to be sounded. All the\nmen were in their rooms ready to undress and go to bed at once, while\nall the women, fully clothed in their best, were on the door-steps\nready, each with her lantern in hand, for their promenade outdoors.\n\nFour strong men seized the rope, pulled back the striking log a whole\nyard\u2019s distance and then let fly. Back bounded the timber and out\ngushed a flood of melody that rolled across the city in every\ndirection, and over the hills, filling leagues of space with sweet\nsound. The children clapped their hands and danced with joy. They knew\nthey would live long, for they had heard the sweet bell\u2019s first music.\nThe old people smiled with joy.\n\nBut what was the surprise of the adult folks to hear that the bell\ncould talk. Yes, its sounds actually made a sentence.\n\n\u201cMu-u-u-ma-ma-ma-la-la-la-la-la-la\u2014\u2014\u201d until it ended like a baby\u2019s cry.\nYes! There was no mistake about it. This is what it said:\n\n\u201cMy mother\u2019s fault. My mother\u2019s fault.\u201d\n\nAnd to this day the mothers in Seoul, as they clasp their darlings to\ntheir bosoms, resolve that it shall be no fault of theirs if these lack\nlove or care. They delight in their little ones more, and lavish on\nthem a tenderer affection because they hear the great bell talk,\nwarning parents to guard what Heaven has committed to their care.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE KING OF THE SPARROWS\n\n\nThe Korean children are awakened every morning by the twittering of the\nsparrows. These little birds build their nests among the vines on the\nroof and along the eaves. The people plant melon, gourd, and mock\norange seeds along the sunny sides of their houses in spring time. All\nthrough the summer, and until late in autumn, the walls and roofs are\ncovered with the thick green leaves. Here, in these sheltered places,\nthe sparrow mother lays her eggs and the father sparrow finds worms and\nfeeds her, until the hungry birdies open their little mouths for\nsomething to eat. After this, both parents are kept busy in raising\ntheir brood and teaching them to fly.\n\nThe greatest dangers to the birdlings come from cruel snakes that live\non the roof and eat up the young sparrows. Sometimes, to help them\nagainst their enemy, the parent sparrows call in the aid of larger\nbirds that are not afraid of the reptiles. These peck at the snake\nuntil they drive him away. There is always a lively chattering over the\nvictory.\n\nOne day, a young sparrow that had hardly learned to fly was almost\nseized, and might have been devoured by the roof-snake, but was saved\nby a big, brave bird that flew at the reptile. Although escaped from\nthe snake\u2019s jaws, the sparrow in falling caught its legs in the curtain\nmade of split bamboo, which hung before the verandah of the house, and\nits limb was put out of joint. There it lay helpless between the\nsplints.\n\nThe owner of the house was a kind man, who loved the birds. Taking pity\non the poor sparrow, he carefully lifted it up, smoothed its feathers,\nand quieted the little creature, while its heart kept beating so fast.\nThen setting its leg in place, he put some moist clay around the broken\npart, until it should be all right again. Meanwhile, he kept it warm,\nfeeding the birdie until it was strong again. One day he took it in his\nhand and out-of-doors letting it fly away. Soon it came back and\nperched on the edge of the roof, twittering thanks to its kind friend.\nThen it spread its wings to fly to the King of the Sparrows, who lived\nin the city of Sparrow Capital, where it at once informed His Majesty\nabout the good man who healed and befriended birds when they were in\ntrouble and who had saved the young sparrow\u2019s life.\n\nThe King of Sparrow Land and all his wise counselors heard the story\nwith great interest. Then they held a meeting and voted to reward\nrichly so good a friend of all sparrows. So they went into the\nstorehouse where were kept beautiful treasures which human beings love.\nFrom the collection they chose what they thought would please most\ntheir good friend, such as gold, jade, brocade, cups and saucers, rice,\nhorses to ride on, oxen to bear heavy loads and pretty maids to wait on\nhim, besides silk and cotton clothes of all sorts, with delicious\nthings to eat and drink. By some magic process, they packed these into\na seed and then gave it to the sparrow in its bill to carry to the good\nman. They charged the bird on no account to lose it and be sure to give\nit to no one but the right person.\n\nSo the sparrow flew out of Sparrow Land and down to the house of its\nkind friend. Carefully laying down the seed, it kept near the paper\nwindow-frame and made a great twittering, until the man came out to see\nwhat was the matter. Recognizing his old acquaintance, he put out his\nopen hand and the sparrow laid the seed in his palm, meanwhile\nchattering in a lively way and looking in his face as if to tell him\nhow precious the treasure was.\n\nBut the good fellow only took it in to his wife and told her how he got\nit, laughed over the matter and was going to throw it away, thinking it\nonly sparrow fun.\n\nThe wife, who was a wise woman, begged her husband to keep it and on a\nwarm day in spring she planted it. It grew to be a luxuriant vine that\nclothed all one side of the house with its leaves. When one unusually\nfine large handsome gourd was nearly ripe, the man thought of plucking\nit for food; but, taking his wife\u2019s advice, he waited until full autumn\nhad come. By this time the gourd, having absorbed the sunshine all\nsummer, was fully ripe.\n\nThen they took a saw to open it properly, and lo! a store of riches\ncame out of that gourd, such as neither the man nor his wife had ever\ndreamed of.\n\nFirst issued something which spread itself out before them. It was a\ntable of costly jade, such as an Emperor ever eats from. Next rolled\nforth a silver bottle of delicious wine and then the daintiest cups,\nthat set themselves on the jade table. Soon a gold tea-caddy appeared\nfilled with the fragrant leaf. Then rolls of silk, fine muslin, satin\nbrocade, and a store of rich clothes, hats, shoes, girdles, and socks\nenough to last a lifetime appeared before their eyes. After these were\nrice and cooked food of all sorts ready for a feast. Looking out into\nthe yard, they saw strong horses and fat oxen waiting to do their\nmaster\u2019s bidding. Last of all, some lovely young girls, as fair as the\nmoon, stepped out of the gourd and proceeded to serve the good things\nof the feast, as if they had been used to waiting on ladies and\ngentlemen all their lives. Following the feast, they danced, made music\nand gave no end of entertainment and service to the man and his wife,\nwho were now as happy as king and queen.\n\nIn their once humble home, now made over new, with all the store of\ngood things and plenty of loyal servants and strong animals to serve\nthem, the old couple lived without care and traveled where they\npleased.\n\nBut when a wicked man, that hated all sparrows and had often driven\nthem away from his house, because he thought them too troublesome,\nheard of his neighbor\u2019s good fortune, he was envious, and wanted to get\nriches in the same way. So he watched his opportunity and, when a\nsparrow came near, he threw a stick at the bird and broke its leg. Then\nhe bound up the limb with clay and a bit of rag. He kept the poor\nsparrow until its leg was well, but dreadfully crooked, and then let it\nfly away.\n\nIn the capital of Sparrow Land, the poor bird told about the bad man\u2019s\ndoings. The Sparrow King at once handed out a seed to be given to the\nenemy of the sparrows. When the naughty man saw the little bird with\nthe crooked legs, he ran out, got the seed and planted it at once. He\ncould hardly wait for the gourd to ripen. Wonderful to relate, however,\nthe vine was most luxurious, covering the whole side of the house and\nall the thatched roofs of the three dwellings in one, which made up his\nhome. Finally in the autumn he plucked the fruit. Then, sitting down\nbefore the pile, with knife and saw, he began to open them.\n\nBut instead of good things, and lovely people, and the treasures that\nmake men rich and happy, such as his kind neighbor had received, there\ncame out, one after another, the twelve curses of Korea.\n\nFirst leaped forth a party of rope dancers, who put out their hands and\ndemanded money. They threatened to live with him and eat at his table\nunless they got their pay.\n\nThere was no help for it. So the cruel man had to give each dancer a\nlong string of cash before he could get rid of the party.\n\nNo sooner had he opened the second gourd than out stepped a line of\nBuddhist priests, who at once began begging for the temples. He was\nonly too glad to buy off these shaven pates.\n\nThe saw had no sooner let the light into another gourd, than forth came\na band of hired mourners carrying a corpse. They began weeping, wailing\nand crying out loud enough to waken the dead. It required another rope\nof cash to get rid of these pests. By this time the cruel man was\nbeginning to feel very poor.\n\nAlmost afraid to touch the other gourds, but still greedily hoping for\nriches, he sawed them open; but one after the other yielded only what\ntook his money and threatened to make him a beggar. From the fourth\ngourd issued a bevy of dancing girls, who refused to leave the house\nuntil he had paid them five thousand cash. From another gourd a pair of\nacrobats leaped out and began a performance. But knowing that they\nwould charge the more for their tricks, if they were allowed to finish\ntheir program, the man bought them off as he had done the others.\n\nGetting poorer and poorer, with no sign of wealth coming from the\ngourds, he yet felt he must open more, but the result was the same. The\nstrangest people, men and women, such as loafers from the government\noffices, fortune-tellers, jugglers, and blind folks appeared. These\nlast had sticks in their hands to find the way, and bells at their\nbelts to collect alms. Finally, of all living things, a giant stood\nforth, that threatened to eat up both the man and his wife.\n\nBy this time there was not a coin or a cash left, and, besides being as\npoor as a rat, the man was hungry. When the twelfth gourd was opened it\nseemed to have in it all the smells of Korea. Holding their noses, the\nman and his wife ran out of their house. Happily for them that they did\nso, for just then a gale of wind blew down the house, and the thatch\nand timbers burst into flames from the fire that had heated the flues.\n\nThus stripped of all their possessions, because of the man\u2019s cruelty to\nthe birds, the wicked fellow and his wife would have starved, except\nfor the kindness of the good man who treated the sparrows kindly. For\nthe rest of their days the old couple lived on their neighbor\u2019s\ncharity.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE WOODMAN AND THE MOUNTAIN FAIRIES\n\n\nOver a half thousand years ago there lived in a northern village, near\nPing Yang, a wood-cutter named Keel Wee.\n\nHe owned a sturdy bull that carried on its back the fuel which he daily\ncut on the mountains and sold on the main street of his village, at the\nfair, which was held every fifth day. The docile brute could carry a\nload of faggots and brushwood piled many feet high over his head and\ntied down with ropes, so that at a distance nothing but his legs were\nvisible. This beast, although so huge, was the gentlest creature\nimaginable. The children were all very fond of the big fellow and were\naccustomed to play with him as if he were one of them, or at least like\na pet dog. The reason of this was that when but a week old the\nbull-calf had been taken from his cow-mother and brought up in the\nfamily with the girls and boys. Only the puppy dog, that also occupied\nthe house with the young folks, was a great favorite.\n\nOn a fine summer morning, Keel Wee, leaving his beast behind, went up\non the mountain and cut enough wood to load up and bring down on\nanother day.\n\nHis wife, as she shouted good-bye, told him to be sure and be home in\ntime for supper, for their eldest son had gone a-fishing and a good\nstring of perch was expected.\n\nShouldering his axe, he started up the mountain path. He had to go\npretty far, for near towns or cities in Korea all the timber had long\nsince been cut away. Every year the woodmen have to search farther\nafield to find fuel.\n\nArriving in the woods where there was a clearing, Keel Wee prepared to\nwield his trusty axe. He was about to take off his big hat and outer\ncoat and lay about him, when he spied, at some distance off, two\nfairy-like beings. They had long hair, looked very wise and were\ndressed in costume of the Chow dynasty of two thousand years ago. They\nsat on stones and played the game of go-ban.\n\nComing near, the woodman took a respectful attitude, and, looking on,\nsoon became interested in the moves of the players. So far from being\nat all disconcerted at the presence of a stranger, the two fairies\nseemed by eye-winks to invite him to look on. Feeling quite proud to be\nthus honored, Keel Wee, leaning his chin upon the handle of his axe,\nbecame absorbed in the game and by and by grew quite excited.\nForgetting himself and his manners, he stretched forth his right hand\nto move one of the pieces. At once the fairy nearest to him gave him a\ncrack on the fingers for his impudence, and jerked Keel Wee\u2019s arm away.\nThen without saying a word, he took out from his wallet something that\nlooked like a persimmon seed and put in the woodman\u2019s mouth. After this\nall three were perfectly quiet.\n\nHour after hour the game proceeded and the players grew more intensely\ninterested. As for Keel Wee, his eyes never winked, so hard did he look\nat the yellow board covered with the black and white pieces. Several\ntimes, when he thought he saw how the fairy on his right could beat in\nthe game, or the one on his left make a better move, he felt like\ntelling one or the other so. When, however, he tried to move his\ntongue, he found he could not speak, or utter a cry. Somehow he felt as\nif he were in a dream.\n\nYet all the time he became more and more wrapped up in the game, so\nthat he determined to see the end of it and know which player had\nbeaten. He forgot that with mountain spirits there is no night or\nmorning, or passing of the hours, nor do they care anything about\nclocks or bells, because in fairy-land there is no time.\n\nAll the while Keel Wee was leaning with his chin on the stout\naxe-handle, holding it with both hands under his neck. He took no note\nof the sun or stars, daylight or darkness and he felt no hunger.\n\nSuddenly the timber of his axe seemed to turn to dust and his chin\nfell. The next thing he knew he had lost his support. Down went his\nhead, and forward fell his body as he tumbled over, upsetting the\nchecker-board, breaking up the game and scattering the round pieces\nhither and yon over the ground.\n\nAwaking as out of a sleep, and thoroughly ashamed of himself for his\nimpoliteness, he tried to pick himself up and humbly apologize for the\naccident which he had caused by his own rudeness. He expected and was\nready for a good scolding. But when he looked up, the fairies were\ngone. Nothing whatever was seen of them or of the playboard and\ncheckers, nor any signs of their having been there, except that when he\nput his hand on the flat stones, which they had used as seats, he found\nthem warm to his touch.\n\nBut where was his axe-handle and what had happened? When he had left\nhome, he had come straight from the barber shop, with his face smooth\nand clean shaven. Now he put his hand to his breast and found that he\nhad grown a long white beard. As for the iron axe-head, it was there,\nbut rusty and half buried in the ground. He had worn one of the big\nfarmer\u2019s hats, which, when turned upside down, might hold a bushel or\ntwo of turnips, and when fastened to his head spread over his shoulders\nlike a roof. Where could it be? He looked about him to find it, but saw\nonly the bits of the slats inside the frame and a few scraps of what\nremained, for the rest had long ago rotted away. Meanwhile he had\ndiscovered that his joints were stiff, and he felt like an old man. His\nclothes were a mass of rags, his hemp sandals were no more, and, on\nboth fingers and toes, had grown long nails like bird\u2019s claws. His hair\nhad burst its topknot string and hung down his back like a woman\u2019s,\nonly it was grayish-white.\n\nWondering what it all meant, Keel Wee hobbled down the mountain and\nfound the road that ran into the main street of his village. Rocks and\nhills, rivers and rills were there, but what a change! Instead of the\ntwo grinning idol posts, of male and female faces, carved out of trunks\nand trees, with sawed-out teeth painted white, and artificial ear flaps\nof wood nailed on, such as had stood before every Korean hamlet since\nthe days of Kija, there was a line of high thick poles, with iron wire\nstretching from one to the other and for miles in the distance. These,\nhe found out afterward, were called \u201clightning-thread-trees\u201d (telegraph\npoles). In place of the rambling and sprawling three-sided thatched\nhouses and yards, divided off with mats hung from sticks, there was a\nwell-built but odd-looking office of painted wood, with openings\nthrough which he saw Korean young men sitting. They were dressed in\nstrange clothes and were fingering outlandish-looking clicking\ninstruments.\n\nHis curiosity prompted him to go up and look more closely, when\nsomething bumped against his nose and nearly knocked him over. When he\ntried again to get closer, his face was flattened, his nose nearly\nbroken, and his lips knocked against his teeth so that they swelled.\nFeeling with his hands to solve the mystery, he touched something hard,\nwhich he could yet see through. Just then he heard a young man inside\nshout to him in Korean:\n\n\u201cHere, you mountain daddy, let that glass alone.\u201d\n\n\u201cGlass? Glass?\u201d thought Keel Wee. \u201cWhat is that?\u201d Yet he could not\nspeak.\n\nHe had hardly drawn a long breath when, looking down along two lines of\nshining iron in the street, he saw a house on wheels coming right at\nhim. There was no horse, no donkey, no bull, no man pulling or pushing\nit, but overhead was a long pole, at the end of which, where it touched\na string, as he thought, though it was an iron wire, was something that\nlooked like a squirrel. It was going round and round as if turning\nsomersaults and seemed to be pushing the moving house along. Inside,\nnear the same stuff which he had already heard was glass, sat a dozen\nor so Koreans. The whole thing, wheels and all, nearly ran over him as\nit thundered by, and his mouth opened in wonder, while a man on the end\nshouted rudely:\n\n\u201cHello, old goblin, where did you get your pumpkin mouth? Look out or\nyou\u2019ll swallow the moon. Get out of the way of the trolley.\u201d\n\nThus did the man they called conductor, or guard, make fun of the poor\nold fellow, for indeed he did look like one of the mummers, who on New\nYear\u2019s Eve amuse or scare the children by putting on their shoulders\nthe huge round devil heads and false faces that represent the\naborigines of Korea and the goblins that once lived in the mountains.\nThese masks are usually shaped like a melon and are cut with eyes, nose\nand mouth, like those which American boys have fun with on All Hallow\nEve.\n\nThis was just the trouble. The woodman in tatters, with no topknot,\nlong hair down his back and a white beard floating over his breast,\nleaning on a long white stick as he hobbled down the street, looked\njust like one of the ancient aborigines that had long ago been driven\ninto the mountains. Nurses and old women frightened naughty children by\nsimply mentioning their names. When one of these mountain men, odd\ncreatures that were half savage in dress and ways, came into the town,\nall the children laughed and the big dogs barked, while the little ones\nran away, for the sight was so unusual. Even the bulls bellowed, the\ndonkeys balked, and the pigs squeaked, as Keel Wee came near. No wonder\nhe was taken for a mountain granddaddy, or a bumpkin dressed up like\none, for few of the city or village folks had really ever seen one of\nthe mountain aborigines, any more than they had seen tigers, that are\nplentiful farther away, but which only the hunters ever caught sight\nof.\n\nMore and more bewildered, Keel Wee wended his way further into the\ntown. He saw that the men no longer wore topknots, or chignons, nor did\nthe lads have on the long braid down their back, which showed that they\nwere youths, but not married yet. Just then some rough boys, supposing\nthat maybe some rustic gawk had mistaken the time of year, jeered at\nhim and cried:\n\n\u201cHello, hermit, do you think it\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve?\u201d\n\nKeel Wee thought he had better ask some questions. So catching sight of\na dignified looking gentleman, in black broad-brimmed hat and flowing\nwhite clothes, who was coming down the street and toward him, Keel Wee\nbowed his head low, almost to the ground. As he did so, the stone put\nin his mouth by the fairies dropped out, and his tongue was loosed. He\ninquired as follows:\n\n\u201cExalted sir, can you tell me where may be the wretched hut of my\nmiserable wife and children? She was the daughter of Gee Kim, and your\ncontemptible slave is Keel Wee.\u201d\n\nThe gentleman, whose dress showed that he was a scholar and person of\nrank, looked long and hard at the questioner, to satisfy himself that\nhe was not being mocked, or imposed upon by a jester, rope-dancer,\nsorcerer, or some such disreputable person, and then cried:\n\n\u201cHeavens! man, are you a beggar-spirit of the mountains? Your speech\nsounds like the dialect spoken in these parts five hundred years ago.\nIn that time such a family lived here, but the head of it, a\nwood-cutter and fuel-seller, is reported to have gone up into the\nmountains and was eaten up by a tiger. Yonder in the graveyard are\nburied ten or more generations of his descendants.\u201d\n\n\u201cTell me, kind sir, what has happened here since King Wang died. It was\nunder his reign that I was born and lived in this village.\u201d\n\nStill eyeing the questioner, as if expecting to see him jump out of his\nrags and declare himself a mummer and the whole affair a joke, the\nkindly gentleman proceeded to give in outline the history of Korea\nduring the previous five hundred years. There had been many kings. The\nTartars first, and then the Japanese had invaded the land. A great war\nbetween the Mikado\u2019s men and the Chinese had taken place. It was just\nover and now people rode in cars, talked hundreds of miles over wires,\nand traveled over iron rails as fast as a dragon could fly, drawn by a\nsteel horse that drank water and fed on wood and black stones that\nburned. In a word, Korea was in an \u201cera of civilization.\u201d\n\nThis was too much for Keel Wee. He now realized that he had lived ten\ntimes longer than the average man. So, hobbling over to the graveyard,\nhe stumbled among the mounds until he found that one of his clan where\nthe bones of his wife and children lay. Next morning, all that was seen\nof Keel Wee was a mass of dust, rags, some bones, and much long white\nhair. Yet, when they buried him, there sprang up around and on his\ngrave strange flowers that no one had ever seen in city or village, but\nwhich bloomed only on the high mountains.","title":"Korean Fairy Tales","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":47396}